Captured And Freed How The Hostage Release Deal Was Done

Anetwork that established a link between President Biden and Hamas was at the heart of talks that led to freeing of captives

- Julian Borger and Ruth Michaelson 

THE FOOTAGE OF HOSTAGES, many of them teenagers and younger, being seized and driven away crying and pleading with their captors, was as harrowing as the sight of the corpses Hamas left behind.

The slaughter of Israeli civilians on 7 October was intended to strike terror into the Israeli psyche and inflict a lasting wound. The hostage-taking was done for other reasons: as a brake on Israeli retaliation and to trade for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Seven weeks later, it has worked better as a bargaining chip than as a deterrent.

The estimated 240 hostages in Gaza did not stop the relentless bombing of Gaza or the ground offensive. Only last week, almost a month on, was a four-day lull agreed, arguably when it suited the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

The initial planned release of as many as 150 Palestinians, on the other hand, was an important gain for the mastermind of the 7 October attack, Yahya Sinwar, who spent more than 23 years in an Israeli prison. It is where he acquired an in-depth grasp of Israeli politics and society. It is also where he developed a determination to liberate the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

Sinwar was released in 2011, one of 1,000 Palestinians swapped for a single Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. The ratio of Palestinians to Israelis this time was smaller, at three to one, but those freed were mostly women and teenagers from the West Bank, caught in the dragnet of Israeli administrative detention, meaning many have never been charged or tried. The release of the prisoners was celebrated across the West Bank, boosting Sinwar’s stature there amid growing discontent with Hamas’ rivals, Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority.