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Talks on a second phase of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas may soon begin. An Israeli delegation traveled to Cairo today to hash out details. To date, there have been six exchanges of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners and detainees under the ceasefire that now ends in less than two weeks. Under the first phase of the deal, Hamas agreed to release a total of 33 Israeli hostages. Israel agreed to free around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. NPR's Jerome Socolovsky looked into why Israel repeatedly accepts deals like this. Here's his report.
JEROME SOCOLOVSKY, BYLINE: The wall in Gershon Baskin's office is covered with framed certificates. In the middle, there's a letter from the prime minister.
GERSHON BASKIN: It says, thank you once again - he never thanked me - but to thank you once again.
SOCOLOVSKY: Baskin is an Israeli peace activist. In 2011, he used his Palestinian contacts to help the Israeli government free a soldier named Gilad Shalit. Militants from the Palestinian group Hamas had taken him hostage five years earlier. The prime minister's letter is dated eight days after Shalit's release, and it thanks Baskin on behalf of the Israeli government.
BASKIN: Signed, Benjamin Netanyahu.
SOCOLOVSKY: Benjamin Netanyahu's government at the time agreed to exchange Shalit for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. One of them was named Yahya Sinwar. He later became the leader of Hamas in Gaza. The October 2023 massacre that he masterminded and the ensuing war with Israel killed around 1,800 Israelis and 47,000 Palestinians. Hamas also took more than 250 hostages.
I wonder if you have any regrets about the Shalit deal?
BASKIN: Look, I have no regrets about the Shalit deal. Shalit was saved. If he had been in captivity in another month...
SOCOLOVSKY: His condition would have deteriorated quickly, Baskin believes. Gilad Shalit wasn't the first Israeli exchanged for a large number of prisoners. Soldiers and civilians captured by militant groups in Lebanon have also been freed for hundreds of detainees, and POW exchanges during the Arab-Israeli wars were often similarly lopsided. In the current conflict, Israel has many bargaining chips. There are nearly 10,000 Palestinians in custody in Israel and the West Bank, many held without charge. That's not to say Israel's government wants to do the deals in this way, says Baskin.
BASKIN: Believe me, the Israelis would love to do one for one (laughter). They would have no problem doing one for one.
SOCOLOVSKY: But there are a couple of problems with one for one. It's long been a Palestinian goal to free as many of their prisoners in Israeli jails as possible, and the families of Israeli hostages want them out as fast as possible. In this country, which relies on a people's army, there's a social contract. Sons and daughters are drafted, and if they're captured, the government vows it will bring them back through force or diplomacy.
But for many Israelis, this hostage crisis presents a wrenching dilemma. Some are worried the exchanges will incentivize future hostage-taking. Some government ministers say fighting Hamas is the priority. And families rallying in the streets for a deal to bring their loved ones home have been smeared as disloyal, says Baskin.
BASKIN: The issue of the hostages was politicized by Netanyahu and his propaganda machine in a way that many Israelis believe that if you make a deal with Hamas, you are supporting Hamas.
SOCOLOVSKY: Actually, Hamas is almost universally loathed in Israel, but polls show overwhelming support for this deal. For many, it's as much about redeeming the hostages as it is about preserving one of Israel's core values.
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SOCOLOVSKY: Rabbi Donniel Hartman flips through a text by the medieval Jewish scholar Maimonides, and he reads a tract.
DONNIEL HARTMAN: (Reading) And there is no greater commandment than redeeming the hostages.
SOCOLOVSKY: Hartman is president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, which advocates for democracy and pluralism in Israel. Taking Jews captive, he says, has been a problem for more than 2,000 years. It's often been done to convert them out of their faith and, Hartman says, also for ransom. It's another reason the ethic of redemption is so strong in Israel.
HARTMAN: It's a self-evident truth that we do not leave our people behind.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTORS: (Chanting in non-English language).
SOCOLOVSKY: Human life above all else, a group of protesters chant outside the defense ministry. There have been protests like this one throughout the war, accusing the government of abandoning the hostages. But even those who favor the hostage-for-prisoner swaps say it's been hard to watch people walk free after they've been convicted in Israeli courts of murder. A number of them were serving life terms for shootings and suicide bombings in buses, cafes, restaurants and other places around the country going back decades. Some Israeli lawmakers want to prevent future swaps by making terrorism subject to capital punishment. It was abolished back in the 1950s for murder convictions. Hartman says it won't work.
HARTMAN: There's a fantasy that we should pass a law that we're never going to do this again or we should have the death penalty. There's fantasies that somehow - you know, and I appreciate them - that we shouldn't be exposed and we shouldn't be vulnerable. But it doesn't matter. You could pass any law you want. At the end of the day, if they have somebody, we're going to pay the price.
SOCOLOVSKY: Because, he says, though it may seem like a vulnerability, upholding a value like this one is a source of strength.
ILANA GRITZEWSKY: (Speaking Spanish).
SOCOLOVSKY: Spanish-speaking journalists join a Zoom call with a Mexican-born Israeli who was held hostage by Hamas. It's not easy for Ilana Gritzewsky to remain composed as she recalls the torment she went through at the hands of her captors.
GRITZEWSKY: (Speaking Spanish).
SOCOLOVSKY: "They broke my collar bone, destroyed my jaw, burned my leg, and my hip is broken."
She says they also told her she would have to marry them and bear their children. But she knew it would end. In November 2023, she and more than a hundred other hostages were released in exchange for 240 Palestinian detainees.
GRITZEWSKY: (Speaking Spanish).
SOCOLOVSKY: "I never lost hope that they would do everything to bring me back," she says. "It's something that, if you lose it, you don't survive."
GRITZEWSKY: (Speaking Spanish).
SOCOLOVSKY: Jerome Socolovsky, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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