Officials fear rejecting release of men during November truce ‘sealed the fate’ of elderly hostages — report

Israeli officials are unsure that the decision to accept only the release of women and children, rather than men, during the weeklong truce in November was the right choice to have made, Channel 12 reports.

The November truce broke down after seven days, when Hamas claimed it was unable to release more civilian women and children, and said it could instead release hostages from other categories, namely civilian men.

Israel refused, saying that this would violate the terms of the negotiated deal, as it knew that, at that point, the terror group was still holding roughly 17 women and two children.

Now, speaking to Channel 12, an anonymous source who was involved in the negotiations for the truce says that the issue of whether or not to allow Hamas to change the terms of the deal and extend it for at least an eighth day was “a very difficult moral dilemma.”

“We didn’t know then that we had sealed the fate of the elderly,” the source is quoted as saying. “But de facto, we could have perhaps released them, and they died.”

The report adds that MK Gadi Eisenkot, who had been an observer in the now-disbanded war cabinet, had spoken in favor of allowing Hamas to violate the terms of the agreement and instead release the men, arguing that it would be better than nothing, as it would be months until the opportunity arose again to release the hostages — men or women.