Haaretz: Instead of rescuing 20 prisoners… Netanyahu returned to war and Israel lost 20 soldiers

Israeli writer Amir Tibon criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for its abject failure to recover Israeli prisoners held by Hamas.

He said the Israeli public must ask itself what purpose the current war on the Gaza Strip serves, and what are these young men dying for?

In his article in Haaretz, Tibon wrote that since Israel violated the ceasefire last March, 20 of its soldiers have been killed, equivalent to the number of its living prisoners who could have been saved.

He added that Israel was at a crossroads three months ago—specifically, since early March—and faced two options: the first was to move from the first phase of the ceasefire agreement with Hamas in January to the second phase, which was supposed to include the release of all remaining prisoners and an end to the war that broke out in October 2023.

The second option was to violate the ceasefire and resume the war, as stated in the article.

The article argued that if the Netanyahu government had adopted the first option, the 20 living Israeli prisoners would have returned home and could have been released before Passover, which occurred nearly two months ago.

But the government opted for the other option, resuming the war.

This was largely politically motivated, but Tibon argues that a decision to return the prisoners and end the war in Gaza, as required by the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, would have spelled the end of Israel’s ruling coalition, with the resignation of extremists like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

For this reason, the war in Gaza resumed three months ago, as since then, the only living Israeli prisoners released has been Idan Alexander, who also holds US citizenship.

His release came as part of a separate agreement negotiated between the Trump administration and Hamas, without any intervention from the Netanyahu government, which insists on a partial and temporary ceasefire that would allow it to resume the war.

If the stated goal is to return the prisoners, the article asserts that the war is achieving precisely the opposite.

However, if the goal is to eliminate Hamas, what diplomatic steps are being taken to establish a stable government in Gaza as an alternative to Hamas?

Tibon wrote that the Trump administration sided with Netanyahu but failed to budge Hamas from its position, while the rest of the world grew impatient as it watched the horrific images emerging from the Gaza Strip and the rising number of civilian casualties resulting from Israeli bombardment.

Tibon continued, “If the stated goal is to return the prisoners, then he asserts that the war is achieving the exact opposite… However, if the goal is to eliminate Hamas, then what diplomatic steps are being taken to establish a stable government in Gaza as an alternative to Hamas?”