Back in January, Israel and Hamas had agreed on a two-phased deal to end the war and release all the hostages. The agreement's first phase, which included a partial Israeli withdrawal and the release of 33 hostages in return for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, went through as promised. But then, instead of negotiating the details of the second phase, which was supposed to include the freeing of all remaining hostages and a mechanism to end the war, Benjamin Netanyahu's government renewed the fighting.
Around 215 days later, we're about to see the second phase of that deal implemented, with all the hostages released from Gaza at once and nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners walking out of Israeli jails. The war will officially be over and Israel will gradually withdraw from the areas it has conquered over the past two years.
How Hamas Gave Netanyahu the Excuse to Prolong the Gaza War
Egypt, Turkey and Qatar told Hamas that once it released the hostages, Israel wouldn't have any pretext to renew the war, despite the agenda of Netanyahu and his messianic political allies
Amir Tibon, Haaretz
06:17 PM • October 10 2025 IDT
Some analysts in Israel say a deal like this could have been reached a year ago; it's hard to prove this, because so many conditions have changed over the past year. But the 65 Israeli soldiers killed since March, the thousands of Palestinian civilians killed over this period, the continued suffering of the hostages and the immense damage to Israel's international reputation all could have been avoided.
Much of the blame rests with Netanyahu and the extremists in his government, but Hamas is equally responsible for the prolonging of the war, as the events of the past week clearly show. Yes, the decision to resume the war was made by Netanyahu, but Hamas insisted on holding on to the hostages until a long list of demands were met, instead of realizing what the Qatari and Egyptian mediators had been telling the Palestinian terror group for many months: The hostages have become the only reason Israel can achieve any legitimacy around the world to continue the war.
It's important to note that in the bigger picture, Hamas bears responsibility for the entire catastrophe of the past two years. If it had not attacked Israel and committed its atrocities of October 7, none of the damage to Gaza since then would have happened. It's also true that Netanyahu's government made a string of disastrous decisions both before and after October 7, including the one to renew the war in March.
But Hamas made one giant miscalculation: It used the hostages as a card to end the war under maximalist terms, instead of realizing that as time went by and the destruction in Gaza became too much for the world to stomach, the hostages became Netanyahu's last resort. Amid growing pressure from Europe, Arab allies, the Democrats in the United States and even a growing element of the Republican MAGA coalition to end the war, Netanyahu kept playing the hostage card, saying that Israel couldn't stop as long as Hamas refused to release the captives.
It was a cynical move by Netanyahu for reasons that are obvious to anyone following the news since October 8, 2023. The prime minister never prioritized the fate of the hostages, and at every turn he chose to prolong and expand the war despite the pleas by their families. The three hostage-release agreements were forced on him by pressure from both the United States and the Israeli public.
Yet Hamas' intransigence played into his hands, not for the first time in the decades-long history of Netanyahu-Hamas relations. Instead of signaling flexibility on the hostage question, Hamas did the opposite – and gave Netanyahu the perfect excuse.
Many factors led to the success of the latest round of negotiations, and one was the position presented to Hamas by Egypt, Turkey and Qatar: Once you release the hostages, Israel won't have any pretext to resume the war, as much as Netanyahu and his messianic political allies would want to do that.
The world has had it with this Israeli government, even the pro-Israel Trump administration. Hamas should have realized that this was the situation and acted accordingly seven months ago. Many lives and a lot of suffering could have been spared.
Haaretz |
