To ensure his political survival, Netanyahu gave Hamas a ceasefire free of charge
For 11 days, Hamas has been free to reorganize without fear of attack or having to release a single hostage. That’s because all that matters now for the PM is passing the budget
Biranit Goren is the editor of Zman Yisrael, The Times of Israel's Hebrew-language sister publication.
“Every minute we sit here talking, Alon is 50 meters underground, terrified, unsure whether he’ll ever be brought home,” former hostage Eli Sharabi told Ilana Dayan in an interview aired 10 days ago on Channel 12. “Think about what he has to endure each day, what he feels – knowing that others were freed while he was left behind.”
Sharabi, who returned to Israel alongside fellow survivors Ohad Ben Ami and Or Levy on February 8, was held in Hamas’s tunnels for about 14 months together with Levy, Elia Cohen, and Alon Ohel. Cohen was released two weeks after Sharabi and Levy, on February 22. Since then, Ohel has remained in Hamas captivity. Alone.
Sharabi described in the interview how their Hamas captors informed the four hostages about the ceasefire and its consequences for them. “A senior commander came into the tunnel and told us, ‘There’s a deal,’” he recalled. “‘Eli Sharabi, Or Levy – you’re being released on February 8. Elia Cohen – you’ll be released on March 1. And Alon Ohel – you’ll be in the second phase, hopefully on March 8.’”
“He was horrified. He turned white,” Sharabi said of Ohel. “He realized he was going to be left behind.”
It is hard to think of Alon Ohel counting down the days until March 8. And impossible to shake off the frustration, anguish, and sadness of knowing that March 8 has come and gone – and Alon Ohel is still in Hamas captivity. Alone.
They gave nothing, they got everything
For 11 days, Israel and Hamas have been in a ceasefire with no quid pro quo. That is, Hamas has received what it values most – time to recover, reorganize, and entrench its control over Gaza, along with an unprecedented influx of humanitarian aid, including valuable equipment – while Israel has received nothing in return.
Not a single hostage, alive or dead, has been released in this period. And Hamas certainly has not been disarmed or weakened. Quite the reverse.
The ceasefire deal approved by the government on January 17 and implemented two days later stipulated that in the first phase, 33 hostages would be released over a 42-day period.
One can debate whether this gradual release approach was justified, whether the hostages could have been freed all at once – but that was the deal, and despite occasional hurdles and violations by both sides, it was carried out. The 33 hostages on the list – 25 alive, 8 deceased – were brought home.
However, the agreement also explicitly stated that negotiations for phase 2 would begin 16 days after the ceasefire commenced – that is, on February 4. That never happened. And it has not happened since. phase 2 has become a dead letter.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear that he would not agree to end the war as a condition for implementing phase 2, while Hamas made it clear that it would not agree that the war continue.
If anyone thinks Netanyahu got his way, they are deluding themselves. If anyone thinks Hamas was left empty-handed, they are on another planet. Just look at the recognition the organization is receiving from the US government – for the first time in 20 years.
Netanyahu, who for over a year repeatedly insisted that only military pressure would lead to the hostages’ release, has now abandoned military pressure. He did not bring back all the hostages through combat – and now he is not bringing them back under a ceasefire.
This is the same Netanyahu who, in 1999, coined the slogan “If they give, they get; if they don’t give, they don’t get.” Yet now Hamas gave nothing and got everything.
Netanyahu’s to-do list
To the dire misfortune of Alon Ohel – and of 23 other hostages believed to be alive, and the hundreds and thousands of family members and friends of all 59 hostages still held in Gaza – March 8, and in fact all of phase 2 falls uncomfortably close to March 31.
In Netanyahu’s world, March 31 is a much more significant date.
Because the 2025 state budget must pass by March 31, or else the Knesset will automatically dissolve, and Israel will head to elections within 100 days. And to pass the budget, Netanyahu cannot negotiate phase 2, because his far-right coalition partners have promised to bring down the government if he does.
But Netanyahu also cannot resume fighting, because the Americans want at least the release of IDF soldier Edan Alexander, who holds US citizenship, from Hamas captivity.
On Netanyahu’s to-do list for the remainder of this month: there’s the IDF draft-exemption law or some other arrangement to appease the ultra-Orthodox. There’s maintaining his coalition with Bezalel Smotrich’s far-right Religious Zionism party and securing support for the budget from fellow far-right leader Itamar Ben Gvir, whose Otzma Yehudit party is currently sitting in the opposition. Perhaps there are even tasks like “Fire the Shin Bet chief” or “Visit Orbán in Hungary,” or “Delay my criminal trial testimony as much as possible.”
But nowhere on that list is the task of bringing the hostages home. Nor is the task of destroying Hamas. That will not happen this month.
Check back on April 1 – when Netanyahu will doubtless issue some grand pronouncements about absolute victory, our dear hostages, and the rock of our existence.
April 1 is, of course, April Fools’ Day.
