Yossi Schwartz ISL (RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine), 30.01.2025
Three Israeli and five Thai nationals held as prisoners of war in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, were released by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad on Thursday in exchange for Israel releasing 110 Palestinian prisoners.
The three Israelis are civilians Arbel Yehud, 29, and Gadi Mozes, 80 from kibbutz Nir Oz, and female soldier Agam Berger, 19, from her base, Nahal Oz.
The release took place in stages and in different locations, with Berger the first to be released on Thursday morning in Jabalia, in northern Gaza, followed later by the release of the remaining hostages in Khan Younis, in the south. Berger was held by Hamas the other two by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The two Israeli hostages were surrounded by a large, angry crowd and dozens of gun-toting militants as they were escorted to be handed over to the Red Cross. The Israeli mass media did not pay any attention to the 110 Palestinian prisoners released from the Zionist Jails.
So what we can learn from the exchanges so far.
1. The Israeli captives looked very healthy unlike the Palestinians that many of them were tortured and humiliated and some died in the Zionist Jails.
2. Jabalia is totally in ruins.
3. The release of Berger was well organized by Hamas.
4. The release of Yehud and Mozes held by the PIJ was very chaotic.
5. The masses of the people of Gaza that suffered so much, hate the Israelis and it will take a strong effort by the Israelis to convince the Palestinians to let them live in a Palestinian state from the river to the sea!
6. For the Israelis as Gidon Levy observed the Palestinians prisoners are not human beings but a price to pay for the release of the Israelis.
7. The reaction of most Israelis to the angry Palestinians that surrounded the Israeli captive is that the Palestinians should die and no piety for the tens of thousands of Palestinians murdered by Israel. And in addition, that Israeli culture is a high culture unlike the low culture of the Palestinians. That Hamas is responsible for the genocide and the destruction not Israel backed by the USA.
Here is a typical Zionist reaction:
“Those who opposed the deal are callous and lacking any empathy? No. The deal is terrible, freeing hundreds of murderous terrorists, and from the footage coming out of Gaza, leaving Hamas in control in some kind of October 6 rewind.
But like in any democracy, the majority view that the huge sacrifices required to save the hostages by accepting the ceasefire was incumbent and necessary was accepted. It’s what separates us from our enemies.
We’ve forgotten who the real demons are.
We’ve spent so long demonizing the “other” in our own country that we forgot who the real demons are. But Thursday morning, some of the haze dissipated, and we saw the real enemy for who they are.
Seeing the images of frenzied throngs of Gazans who jostled to get a look at Gadi Mozes, Arbel Yehoud, and Agam Berger, it was clear that contrary to what the Biden administration attempted to frame, there is no division between the “Gazan people” and the terrorists who brought such tragedy upon the enclave”.[i]
The Zionist monster -the Israeli state must be destroyed!
For Palestine, red and free from the river to the sea!
End note:
[i] https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-839969