Tel Aviv, Israel
—
On Monday, just hours after the remaining 20 living hostages were released by Hamas and taken back to Israel, the speaker of Israel’s parliament removed the pin on the yellow ribbon that is a symbol of unity and a constant reminder of the nation’s determination to secure the return of its captives.
Amir Ohana thanked U.S. President Donald Trump, who arrived early to applause in Congress to broker a ceasefire agreement, but said: “We are honored to be able to terminate the agreement.”
Ohana’s pin was given to him by the father of one of the newly freed hostages.
However, some people who were sitting in the same room and still waiting for the return of their loved ones found this celebratory moment highly inappropriate.
“It was disrespectful. There is no room for sympathy,” said Ruby Chen, the father of Itai, an American-Israeli hostage who was captured in Gaza and later pronounced dead.
“Part of the narrative he wanted to push was that there was a deal, that the prime minister (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) got the deal and it was over,” he told CNN. “Well, that’s not the case, because there are still (hostages in Gaza).”
By Tuesday evening, Hamas had freed only eight of the 28 dead hostages remaining in Gaza, further worrying many families who had watched the country celebrate the return of living prisoners as a huge success.
Under the ceasefire agreement, Hamas had until noon local time (4 a.m. ET) on Monday to hand over all hostages, living or dead, to Israel. Only four of the dead were released that night: Guy Illouz, Yossi Shalabi, Bipin Joshi, and Daniel Peretz.
More than 24 hours later, on Tuesday evening, the Israeli military announced it had received four more bodies. The three were named early Wednesday as Uriel Baruch, Tamir Nimrodi and Eitan Levy.
For months, Israel had determined that Hamas might not be able to find and return all of the remaining dead hostages.
Israeli intelligence sources indicate that maps and intelligence exist that pinpoint the location of several of the dead hostages, but efforts to enter these areas have been hampered by two years of Israeli shelling, with large areas of the enclave covered in rubble, where an estimated 10,000 Palestinians are also believed to be buried.
The Israeli military will work with an international task force agreed to in the cease-fire plan to recover the bodies of the remaining hostages. But how it works is still unclear.
By Tuesday, anger was growing among the public and the Israeli government over how few dead hostages had been returned by Hamas.
Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz called the lack of progress a “failure to honor commitments,” but stopped short of military threats and interpreted it as a signal that the ceasefire could still hold.
Israeli security officials said the Rafah border crossing, the main entry point for humanitarian aid, was not open on Wednesday, but aid was entering Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
The United Nations said Israel confirmed on Wednesday that only 300 aid trucks, half of the agreed number, would be allowed into Gaza and that no fuel or gas shipments would be made, except for specific humanitarian needs.
“With this approach, we believe that news of the return of additional dead hostages will arrive first, perhaps within hours. But we are determined to bring them all back,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Tuesday night, before the second group of dead hostages was returned.
But for many, Netanyahu’s words rang hollow.
Critics of the prime minister, including some of the hostages’ families, have long accused him of prolonging the war to distract from multiple political scandals at the expense of retrieving the hostages.
“Those who remove the national flag or hostage pin from their shirts or hide their responsibility with thunderous applause betray Jewish moral values and desecrate signed agreements,” the Hostage and Missing Families Forum said Tuesday in a nod to continued dissatisfaction with Israeli leaders and their coalition forces.
Yael Adal, the mother of murdered hostage Tamir Adal, said she felt deeply “betrayed” as she listened to the cheers of the political class while sitting in parliament, highlighting her dissatisfaction with how the deceased were treated under the terms of the deal.
“What was signed in the agreement was to return the dead according to their ability. Now Hamas is saying, ‘This is what we can do,'” she said.
“Why is the value of corpses so low?” she asked local media.
As public anger intensifies, key questions about next steps remain unanswered.
Second ceasefire negotiations are in the early stages. Only the first phase of the plan has been implemented, and so far only a few of the 20 goals of President Trump’s plan have been accomplished.
Many of the thorniest questions remain unresolved, including whether Hamas will lay down its arms and who will rule Gaza.
And although President Trump unequivocally declared “the war is over” on a flight to the Middle East on Monday, Israeli troops remain in the enclave amid fears that the security situation in Gaza will continue to deteriorate amid reports of violent clashes between Hamas and rival groups.
Meanwhile, the hostages’ families are caught between diplomacy and devastation.
“I remember October 7th,” Itai’s mother, Hagit Chen, told CNN.
In a video shared online, she added: “Please continue to wear your hostage pin. It is very important to show that you are with us.”
