Pain at release of terrorists under Israel-Hamas hostage deal

CAESAREA, Israel — Ten years ago this week, two Palestinian attackers boarded a bus in Jerusalem and shot, beat and stabbed to death Israeli-American educator Richard Lakin and two others before police killed one of the activists and wounded and arrested the other.

The surviving attacker, Bilal Abu Ghanem, was freed in February from his three consecutive life sentences for murder as part of the latest ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas.

That’s when his son, Micah Avni, had to witness the release of his father’s killer.

“I feel like I have been betrayed by my country,” Avni, 56, said the day before Hamas exchanged 24 Israeli hostages for around 2,000 Palestinian detainees and prisoners, 250 of whom were serving life sentences for serious crimes, including terrorism.

Avni’s anguish and anger have now coalesced into a broader collective, shared by many Israelis whose loved ones were killed or maimed in terrorist attacks and who must now see the perpetrators go free under the latest ceasefire brokered by the Trump administration.

Their torments not only put an end to the euphoria surrounding last week’s deal: they came close to ending the deal and could yet derail its full implementation.

Two far-right political parties in the Israeli government cited the release of 250 convicts as a reason to vote against President Donald Trump’s ceasefire and hostage release plan.

“Alongside this joy, it is absolutely forbidden to ignore the question of the price: the release of thousands of terrorists,” said Itamar Ben-Gvir, far-right Minister of National Security and leader of the Otzma Yehudit party, in a statement explaining his party’s opposition. “These are terrorists whose past experience proves that they will return to terrorism and their art of murdering Jews. »

While Ben-Gvir and others speak of thousands of “terrorists” being released, 250 of them have been convicted of serious crimes.

Most of the more than 1,700 people released, including doctors, nurses and journalists, were held without charge. These detainees were not involved in the October 7, 2023 attacks and were being held under a controversial practice called administrative detention, which allows Israel to detain people for an indefinite period without ever charging them. More than 20 minors were on the list.

For Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, the releases were cause for celebration. Prisoners and detainees returning to Gaza climbed onto the roofs of buses amid crowds of well-wishers.

In the West Bank, families waited for the released prisoners in front of the Cultural Palace of Ramallah, in the provisional Palestinian capital. Some women and girls arrived wearing traditional Palestinian dresses. Many refused to speak to the assembled press: the Israeli army, they said, had called them and warned them not to speak to the media.

Prisoners’ families said they had seen others re-arrested in the past and did not want to gamble on the convicts’ hard-won freedom.

“For Israel, every Palestinian is a terrorist,” said the uncle of one of the freed Palestinians, who declined to give his name, “even if they did nothing.”

Added to this is the collective pain of nearly 2 million people in Gaza who endured Israel’s two-year war against Hamas. There is little hope among Palestinians that anyone will be held accountable for the tens of thousands of innocent civilians killed by Israeli fire, as well as those maimed in attacks.

Israel has accused Hamas of operating in civilian areas, which requires attacks that endanger non-combatants. In November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif, whom Israel said it killed, for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Israel has forcefully rejected the allegations, and Netanyahu’s office called the decision “anti-Semitic,” dismissing them as “absurd and false” and condemning the ICC as “a biased and discriminatory political body.”

Tinted with sadness

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged the public suffering of many Israelis in his comments Sunday evening.

“Tomorrow our sons will return to their borders,” he said. “This is a historic event tinged with sadness at the release of the murderers – and joy at the return of those kidnapped. »

Under President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the fighting, Hamas fighters who lay down their arms would be spared any punishment — a condition that also sparked serious reservations among many Israelis, including Netanyahu, who hoped to see Hamas destroyed.

Rachel Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli-American whose son Hersh was kidnapped Oct. 7 and then killed by Hamas last year, said she rejects the angry feelings that come with grief.

“Nothing can bring Hersh back,” she said in an interview last week. “I tend to see things in a very zoomed-in way. I don’t have this fiery, venomous anger that I don’t think would do me any good.”

Avni, who opposed this week’s deal, said he feared the released convicts would simply return to the battlefield or engage in terrorism against Israelis.

“Obviously every Jew wants the hostages back,” he said. “This does not mean strategically marketing thousands of terrorists for 20 lives, it makes sense.

Avni advocated the execution of terrorists as a means of removing prisoner exchanges from the negotiating table. Israeli law allows the death penalty, but only for treason and “crimes against humanity.” The death penalty has only been used twice in Israel’s history.

In the hours after her father’s murder, Avni admits she considered taking matters into her own hands. Lakin and Abu Ghanem were taken to the same ward of the same Jerusalem hospital after the attack.

The two men were treated just a few meters apart. Lakin is dead, but his killer survived.

“I think I would have jumped on him and done something if there were police there,” Avni said. “I remember thinking, you know, you’re going to prison for life and you have responsibilities.”

Recounting the cruel irony of her father’s murder still brings tears to Avni’s eyes. His father was a peace-loving school principal who advocated for racially integrated education, marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. and participated in the anti-segregation “Freedom Riders” movement in the 1960s.

The family moved to Israel when Avni was 15.

“He strongly believed in coexistence. I wish everyone could be like that, but that’s not the case,” Avni said of her father. “It was an innocent worldview.”

Matt Bradley reported from Caesarea and Daniele Hamamdjian from Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.