Who is to blame for the horror of Gaza?

IT SEEMED TO me oddly appropriate that it was in this peaceful Swiss village where I have been for the past three weeks that I should learn that peace is breaking out in Gaza.

- TAVLEEN SINGH

For many days I watched the news about the latest ‘deal in Gaza’ with skepticism and a weary sense of déjà vu. We have been here before too many times. And then, at the very last moment, there has been some hitch that prevented the last living hostages from being released by the monsters who constitute Hamas.

This time, they say, is different and Donald Trump plans to be in Jerusalem around the time you read this, so we must hope that it is. And that the hostages who remain alive will finally be released.

Ata personal level, my deepest concern since the atrocities committed by Hamas’ Islamic warriors on October 7, 2023, has been for the hostages. Often, I have thought of the babies that were taken down into those tunnels under Gaza. Often, I have wondered if they were separated from their parents. Often, I have wondered if there was anyone to explain to them why their innocent lives were plunged into darkness. And if there was someone to explain to them that it was not their fault that any of these things happened. When the tiny coffins of those two little boys were handed back by their Hamas captors, | felt as if children from my own family had died.

Kfir Bibas was nine months old, and his brother Ariel was four. Among the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas, there were 36 children.