Shalom all,
There are moments when a nation inhales and the whole body seems to hold its breath. The return of the living hostages on October 13, 2025 felt like such a moment for Israel – a raw, ecstatic, exhausted inhalation after two years of torment. Twenty people who had been ripped from their homes on October 7, 2023, were finally back on Israeli soil. They were frail and starved. They had been beaten and tortured. Some were confused. But they were all loved by the millions in Israel who had informally adopted them as family. They are slowly being loved back into life. “Hostage Square” in Tel Aviv was packed by uncountable numbers, as people stood shoulder to shoulder, their eyes fixed on the large screens in front of them, waiting for the first group of live hostages to be returned and then for the second group, a total of 20 in all. And then, after two years of pain and anguish, the moment came. The hostages were in Israeli hands. A collective shout rose from across the nation. It was a time of jubilation in the streets, in homes, in offices and everywhere in Israel where the news was being broadcast: “It’s official: There are no more living Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity.” Hospitals, which had long prepared to render special care to returning hostages, began to be filled with 20 live hostages. Synagogues filled with prayers of thanksgiving. Even many who were strongly opposed to any “deal” with Hamas terrorists were carried along by the moment and shed tears of joy. Our sons had been brought back into the borders of Israel.
But, the relief was immediately shadowed by a different, corrosive emotion: betrayal. The U.S.-brokered “20-point” framework – presented as a hard-won mechanical list of steps to bring the living home, return the dead hostages, open crossings, and allow humanitarian relief – required more than applause. It required trust, painstaking verification, and the simple decency of returning every human that had been taken hostage. Within days, Israeli officials, grieving families, and pro-Israel outlets began to say bluntly that Hamas had failed to live up to the deal.
The concrete tally that matters to grieving families is stark and unforgiving. The living: 20 returned on Oct. 13, processed into medical care and homecomings. The dead: Hamas has handed over only a fraction of the 28 bodies Israel expected under the deal – many reports converge around nine returned so far, with families and authorities sharply disputing Hamas’s explanations that some remains cannot be reached. One of the returned coffins was discovered not to contain an Israeli hostage at all, but the body of a Gazan – a fact that brought back memories of the return of another body earlier this year that was supposed to be that of the mother of the Bibas children, but which was that of an unknown Gazan, before the alleged “mistake” was corrected. This present failure of Hamas to abide by the terms of the ceasefire agreement has become a focal point in accusations that the group is purposely obstructing or manipulating the process of returning the dead bodies of the hostages, who are still being held by Hamas. As of this writing, the remains of 19 hostages are still being held by the terror group. “This represents a blatant breach of the agreement by Hamas…The families of the deceased hostages are enduring especially difficult days filled with deep sorrow.”
That single misidentification is not a clerical error in a bureaucracy; for the families who have waited two years for the chance to bury their children, spouses, parents, it is an assault – a twisting of memory into bargaining chips. Reports captured the raw spectrum of human response: overwhelming joy as living hostages reunite with parents in streets and hospitals, and bitter fury from families who have not received the remains of their loved ones. The refrain heard at Israeli cemeteries and in hot lines to ministers is that we cannot permit history to repeat itself and our fight is not over until every last hostage is returned home.
Politically, the consequences are immediate and jagged. The right-wing in Israeli politics – voices who never trusted the deal – pounced, framing the mismatches and delays as proof that any concession is fertile ground for terror. Centrist and left-leaning factions, while grateful for the living returns, warn that a breakdown in compliance risks consigning Israel back to all-out war and the obliteration of fragile diplomatic inroads. The public mood is bifurcated: gratitude tangled with a gut-level sense of being deceived. Commentators from pro-Israel outlets argued in strong language that the breach – whether intentional or a consequence of chaos in Gaza – undermines any narrative of a stable cease-fire.
Yet one fundamental breach of the ceasefire agreement is not enough for the terror group. As noted in the Algemeiner headline of October 16, 2025: “Hamas Aims to Keep Grip on Gaza Security and Can’t Commit to Disarm.”
International reactions have been a study in careful choreography. The White House, while celebrating the hostage releases, publicly urged patience and verification, cautioning that recovering remains from a shattered urban battlefield “will take some time.” Other pro-Israel governments and pundits praised the return of the living but echoed Israel’s demand for full compliance on the dead and on opening Rafah crossing for humanitarian aid. Meanwhile, far-right outlets and commentators hailed the deal as a political victory for the U.S. administration, even as they pointed to the mismatched coffin and retained bodies as evidence that Hamas can – and will – flout agreements.
From the ground, the voices most often drowned out by geopolitics are those in private rooms and hospital beds. One freed hostage’s father described the reunion as “a miracle” and “the answer to prayers,” while other families, standing at the edge of freshly dug graves, described a sense of being cheated by an enemy that treats the dead as leverage and is lying about being unable to find dead hostages. These conflicting emotional traumas have fed political tensions: ministers and MPs demand clarity and immediacy; fathers and mothers demand coffins that hold their children, not excuses.
What does Hamas’s “breaches” of the ceasefire agreement mean in practice? For Israel, it means tangible policy levers: closing or restricting crossings, slowing aid, or even reinstituting limited military measures to pressure compliance. For mediators – the U.S., Qatar, Egypt – it means frantic diplomacy to prove the deaths were not the result of bad faith but of battlefield realities: tunnels collapsed, sites inaccessible, remains scattered. Pro-Israel outlets have been unsparing: the narrative they advance is that Hamas has both the capacity and the motive to delay or manipulate returns to maximise political gain.
And so the week closed on an uneasy holiday of relief and recrimination. The smiles in the hospital corridors cannot erase the empty chairs at so many Shabbat tables, nor can diplomatic rhetoric mend the raw wound of a wife, whose husband is still missing after two years, or the agony of a mother who has not received the child she buried in her mind. The deal brought the living home – a long, prayed-for event, but it also exposed a fault line: agreements without trust are brittle, and when the dead are bargaining chips, the whole moral architecture of peacemaking starts to crumble.
If diplomacy cannot convert the week’s fragile cease-fire into verified, complete compliance – full returns, open crossings, reliable aid – then Israel will be forced to choose between accepting partial justice and reopening the violence that consumed so many lives. In the meantime, the nation will carry both gratitude and grievance, the two emotions braided tightly together, as families wait, politicians argue, and mediators scramble to mend what may already be tearing.
For millennia, the Jewish people have faced relentless attempts – through exile, persecution, forced conversion, and genocide – to erase their faith, identity, and existence, yet have endured as a testament to divine preservation and a promise that is as unchangeable as God Himself. This latest battle lasted two years. But, the war is far from being over. We’re experiencing only another ceasefire, already violated by a terrorist organization with no moral compass, whose signature on an agreement is a matter of convenience, not a matter of commitment. Your continued prayers would be appreciated for wisdom for Israel’s leaders, for comfort and compassion for the wounded and for grace for the families who wait for the return of the bodies of their loved ones, so that they can finally achieve closure.
Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. For our heart rejoices in Him, because we trust in His holy name. Let Your lovingkindness, O LORD, be upon us, according as we have hoped in You. (Psalm 33:20-22).
It’s the beginning of a new week and with new opportunities to be thankful.
Bless, be blessed and be a blessing.
Marvin
The Week That Was 