{"id":16168,"date":"2025-10-12T17:15:26","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T23:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/for-some-israelis-saving-hostages-held-in-gaza-means-freeing-militants\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:36:11","slug":"for-some-israelis-saving-hostages-held-in-gaza-means-freeing-militants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/for-some-israelis-saving-hostages-held-in-gaza-means-freeing-militants\/","title":{"rendered":"For some Israelis, saving hostages held in Gaza means freeing militants"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Israeli
Israeli rescue workers carry the body of U.S. tourist Kristine Luken after she was found in a wooded area near the village of Mata, outside Jerusalem, Sunday, Dec. 19, 2010. (Tara Todras-Whitehill\/The Associated Press<\/span>Tara Todras-Whitehill<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ZICHRON YAACOV, Israel \u2013 On Tal Hartuv’s chest is a jagged scar, one of 18 stab wounds from a brutal 2010 attack outside Jerusalem that killed her friend. Next to the 3-inch mark rests a dog tag inscribed with \u201cOur heart is captive in Gaza,\u201d a popular symbol supporting a cease-fire deal exchanging Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.<\/p>\n

On Friday, as many celebrated a deal between Israel and Hamas after two years of war, Hartuv read through the list of Palestinian prisoners set to be released and saw the name Iyad Hassan Hussein Fatafta. He was one of three men who tried to kill her and was convicted of killing her friend Kristine Luken, an American tourist visiting Israel.<\/p>\n

Survivors like Hartuv and families of those killed in attacks face a wrenching dilemma: Should they accept the release of their loved ones\u2019 killers, risking future attacks, or leave hostages in Gaza to their fate?<\/p>\n

\u201cI can feel thrilled and hopeful and joyful that our hostages are coming home,\u201d said Hartuv, who changed her name as part of her rehabilitation. \u201cBut I can still feel angry, I can feel betrayed, I can feel hollow. They’re not mutually exclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one from the Israeli government contacted her about the likely release. She received the list from a journalist.<\/p>\n

By Monday, Hamas is expected to release the remaining 48 Israeli hostages held in Gaza, about 20 believed to be alive. Israel will release around 2,000 Palestinians, including senior militants convicted of deadly attacks, people convicted of lesser offenses, and those held without charge under administrative detention.<\/p>\n

\"Tal
Tal Hartuv, who survived an attack by Palestinian militants armed with machetes in 2010, poses for a photo at her home in Zikhron Ya'akov, northern Israel, March 13, 2025. (Ariel Schalit\/The Associated Press)<\/span>Ariel Schalit<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Police
Police forensic officers work amid the remains of a bombed bus in the northern Israeli city of Haifa Wednesday, March 5, 2003. (Brennan Linsley\/The Associated Press)<\/span>Brennan Linsley<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u2018We need to bring them back\u2019<\/div>\n

Twenty-two years ago, a suicide bomber blew up Bus 37 in Haifa, killing 17 people, including nine children heading home from school.<\/p>\n

Israel convicted five Palestinians of assisting the bomber. Three were released in 2011 as part of an exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held in Gaza. A fourth was released during the last cease-fire earlier this year.<\/p>\n

For years, Yossi Zur, whose 17-year-old son Asaf was killed in the 2003 bombing, campaigned against prisoner releases, especially the 2011 exchange that freed 1,027 Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Zur remembers being heartbroken as buses loaded with convicted militants left prison.<\/p>\n

Those released in the Shalit deal included Yahya Sinwar, who orchestrated the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. Sinwar became Hamas\u2019 top leader before being killed by Israeli troops last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my failure that I did not manage to protect my son, and now I’m not managing to prevent his murderers from going out of prison,\u201d Zur said.<\/p>\n

But when fellow activists asked him to protest the current cease-fire exchanges, he declined.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the amount of people that were taken on Oct. 7, and with a range of ages, I just came to the conclusion that it’s not going to be worth the fight this time,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need to bring them back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The worst hostage crisis Israel has faced<\/div>\n

Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 attack and abducted 251.<\/p>\n

Israel\u2019s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza\u2019s Health Ministry, which does not specify how many were militants.<\/p>\n

In a previous cease-fire this year, Israel released nearly 1,800 Palestinians, including about 230 serving lengthy sentences for deadly attacks, in exchange for 25 living hostages and the bodies of eight others. Most prisoners convicted of deadly attacks were deported.<\/p>\n

This time, Israel is expected to release around 250 prisoners serving long sentences and about 1,700 people seized from Gaza over the past two years and held without charge.<\/p>\n

After previous releases, joyful crowds welcomed prisoners home, adding to the agony of Israeli victims\u2019 families.<\/p>\n

\u2018I want to try and make Israel a safer place\u2019<\/div>\n

Ron Kehrmann\u2019s 17-year-old daughter, Tal, a popular high school senior who loved singing and doodling, was also killed on Bus 37. He still cries whenever he thinks of her.<\/p>\n

It feels better to focus on his activism, he said.<\/p>\n

He remains staunchly opposed to releasing Palestinian prisoners, saying it encourages attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to try and make Israel a safer place,\u201d he said. The Oct. 7 attack happened \u201cbecause of the mistake of the government,\u201d in releasing militants for Shalit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a youngster knows that at one point, if he succeeds in killing the Israelis, he will be released, so why shouldn’t he do it?\u201d Kehrmann said. \u201cIsrael needs to break the equation of releasing hostages via releasing terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

A decision to maintain empathy<\/div>\n

Since learning of her attacker’s impending release, Hartuv has felt herself sinking into anger and betrayal. When that happens, she pulls up a photo of a hostage or their anguished parents and looks into their eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn’t melt me, but it creates that room for empathy and reminds me there’s another side of the coin,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat doesn’t dissipate my feeling of anger at the Israeli government, or their sloppiness in not even contacting me, or feelings of betrayal at Western governments who didn’t hold Hamas to account, but it does mollify my sense of injustice to some degree,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the ability to go back and forth between heartbreaking stories, holding space for both, that Hartuv wishes more people would emulate. She feels Israeli discourse has been so fixated on the hostages that those questioning the deal\u2019s cost have been pushed aside. She doesn\u2019t want to stop the deal, but after the hostages return, she wants recognition for the price Israel \u2013 and she personally \u2013 had to pay, and for the fear that this could lead to more attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would make the release of the hostages so much more magnificent if you understand how necessary this is for Israel, but also how difficult,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Israeli rescue workers carry the body of U.S. tourist Kristine Luken after she was found in a wooded area near the village of Mata, outside Jerusalem, Sunday, Dec. 19, 2010. (Tara Todras-Whitehill\/The Associated PressTara Todras-Whitehill ZICHRON YAACOV, Israel \u2013 On Tal Hartuv’s chest is a jagged scar, one of 18 stab wounds from a brutal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16168"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20054,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16168\/revisions\/20054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16168"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}