The latest hostage-prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas was a grim spectacle of war’s cruelty. Three frail Israeli hostages, barely recognizable after 491 days in captivity, were paraded on stage by masked gunmen in Gaza before being handed over to the Red Cross. Meanwhile, 183 Palestinian prisoners walked free from Israeli jails, seven of them requiring hospitalization due to alleged mistreatment.
The images were haunting: Israelis cheering in Tel Aviv, only to fall silent at the sight of emaciated hostages. In Ramallah, freed prisoners were embraced by their families, some still bearing the scars of their incarceration. The swap was less about justice and more about survival—a transactional pause in a war that has already claimed over 49,000 lives, mostly civilians.
