Hostages go from symbols of tragedy to emblems of hope after rescue
For a nation burdened by sorrow, besieged by enemies, parched with anxiety and tormented by international mendacity, this was a dream-like moment of joy.
When Israeli special forces rescued four hostages in central Gaza in an audacious daytime operation that had been planned for weeks, the country erupted in happiness. On Tel Aviv beach, lifeguards announced the news to cheers and dancing.
As the families of the freed left their apartments to be reunited, neighbours sang from windows and wept in jubilation. Across the country – and throughout the Jewish world – a single phrase was on everyone’s lips. Am Yisrael chai. The people of Israel live.
The moment of joy contained a moment of clarity. Israel’s war in Gaza is not one of aggression, bloodlust or conquest. Despite the propaganda of Hamas and its armies of sympathisers at the UN, in the international media and on the Left of politics, the Jews of 2024 do not relish the deaths of children any more than their forebears in Norwich did in 1144 when that lie was first levelled against them. Don’t listen to those who reframe a hostage rescue as an atrocity. This is a war of defence, of humanity and of love.
Not love of Hamas and their outriders. Love of family. In the aftermath of October 7, Jews around the world were often asked whether they had any relatives in Israel. There was only one answer: nine million of them, with hundreds in captivity in Gaza. That is why we wept at the pictures of the hostages coming home. That is why we root for the IDF. Those brave soldiers who leave their parents and their children for the maw of the death cult are not motivated by enthusiasm for killing, but to release their countrymen, to protect their families and their home.
They do not risk their lives for the genocide of civilians, an allegation that is shameful even in repetition. They go into action behind a vanguard of warnings to vacate the battlefield and deploy as precise munitions as possible, despite the human sacrifice strategy of the enemy.
Who among us held out hope that Noa Argamani, the 26-year-old Israeli partygoer last seen screaming on the back of a Hamas motorcycle, was still alive? Who dared to hope she might be returned to her mother, who is suffering with cancer? In a single day, Noa has gone from a symbol of tragedy to a symbol of hope, that alchemical force on which the Jewish state was founded and that continues to sustain it, even through this darkness.
Her rescue, as well as that of Almog Meir Jan, 22, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and 41-year-old Shlomi Ziv, proves the value of military pressure. Hamas needs to hurt. While the world tells Israel to lay down its arms, dreaming up ever more spurious arguments – stop fighting and Hamas will vanish, ceasefire and your daughters will be freed, be kind and they will come to love you, give them a state and they will allow you to live – the IDF must carry on.
On Friday, Israeli troops took the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow strip of land between Gaza and Egypt peppered with smuggling tunnels. On Saturday, they rescued four hostages. Next week they will continue to advance through Rafah, neutralising Hamas house by house and destroying them in their tunnels. A million civilians have been evacuated to safety. The political plan for Gaza remains frustratingly vague but the military strategy has been vindicated.
Hamas is licking its wounds. The terror group had its exhilaration on October 7 and now the tables have turned. This is a struggle of family against depravity. Israel celebrates freedom, not murder; those holding firm for us are family too. Thank you.
Jake Wallis Simons is editor of the Jewish Chronicle and author of Israelophobia
