Images from the return of the first three women Israeli hostages, aged 24, 27 and 31, from Hamas captivity in Gaza after 471 days were joyful, yet worried about those still to be freed in a complicated, fragile ceasefire deal that could fall apart at any time. No one is sure how many hostages, including three Americans, remain alive.
Likewise, the pictures of bittersweet celebrations in the streets of Gaza where civilians were able to return to ruined homes and receive the first of 250 aid trucks queued up on the border were a welcome relief from the daily images of bombings. Ninety women and minor Palestinians were released as well.
As with the ceasefire announcement earlier in the week, this moment surely was one to savor — regardless of the politics and decades of strife on all sides. Among the noxious tools of war, the holding of civilian hostages without information is a clear violation of whatever morality governs even conflict.
At the designated time, the ceasefire just started — no fanfare or ceremony. Israeli troops withdrew from two Gazan towns. The guns had continued firing even into the preceding hours. Israel maintains eyes on border crossings from Israel and Egypt.
The reminders were everywhere that there always is time for renewed hostility in some new form. In Israel, rightist members of the government coalition said they were resigning in protest of stopping the fighting before it could lead to Jewish settlement and annexation of Gaza and the West Bank. Among Hamas and its related militias outside Gaza, despite significant Hamas losses, there already was bragging that a new generation of fighters already was stirring. Masked Hamas fighters were parading in Gaza’s streets, seemingly to say they were intact as a rebel force.
No one knows how the region will be governed or even how the globe can assure keeping this peace even through 42 days and release of 30 more women and children toward the next tier of negotiated hostage-for-prisoner trades, with about 30 Palestinian prisoners for each Israeli.
In Washington, supporters of outgoing Joe Biden and incoming Donald Trump continued sparring over credit for a plan that Biden had outlined months ago, but that Trump had threatened a cryptic “hell to pay” unless accepted before Monday — Gaza already is flattened. At this point, who cares about credit? Bloviating aside, it wouldn’t have happened without the agreement of the warring parties.
Maybe for once we can put the security, dignity and feeding of all the civilians involved first.