Despite the mostly positive reaction to the ceasefire and hostage exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas announced this Wednesday (15), a small number of families whose loved ones remain trapped in Gaza say “no” to the idea of an agreement.
Many members of the Tivka Forum group, including settlers from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, have right-wing ideologies. They oppose the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israel as part of the deal, arguing that only a partial release of Israeli hostages in Gaza is unacceptable.
Instead, they insist that defeating Hamas through strong military action must be the top priority and is the best strategy for rescuing hostages.
The Tikva Forum, which says it was founded to bring hostages home “from a place of strength, faith, national responsibility and concern for the unity and safety of all Israelis,” is different from the Hostage Families Forum – which represents the majority of hostage families and has been leading protests for months.
Tzvika Mor, co-founder of Tikva Forum, believes his son Eitan, who is detained in Gaza, would like him to oppose the deal.
“This agreement that you are talking about today is very dangerous for my son and for the majority of the hostages, especially the young people and the soldiers who will remain in Gaza for decades,” Mor declared to CNN.
“I know that Eitan wants me to be sure that the State of Israel will be safe,” he said, adding that if his son had not been in captivity, he would have been “a soldier in Gaza, Lebanon or Syria.”
The first phase of the agreement announced this Wednesday should include the release of children, women, sick people and the elderly who are detained in Gaza to the release of hundreds of Palestinians from Israeli prisons, some of whom have been accused of killing Israelis.
Boaz Miran, who is also part of the Tikva Forum, also opposes the agreement. His brother Omri was kidnapped by Hamas-led militants from Kibbutz Nahal Oz in southern Israel, leaving behind his wife, Lishay, and their two young daughters. The first phase of the agreement is unlikely to release his brother, considered the priority groups.
Boaz campaigned against the agreement along with other families linked to the Tikva Forum. Members of the group often share views similar to those of Israel’s far-right politicians, such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who threatened to withdraw from Netanyahu’s coalition if a deal was signed, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who said that an agreement would be a “catastrophe”.
Both ministers are settlers with hard-line views on Palestinians.
‘Monsters like our neighbors’
Mor, the forum’s co-founder, resides in the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba, near Hebron, in . His son was kidnapped by members of Hamas at the Nova Festival on October 7, 2023. He said that at least 15 families are part of the forum, but that many prefer to stay out of the spotlight.
Miran and other members of the Tikva forum reject the Gaza deal in its current form, saying the hostages should be returned in one batch and that Palestinian “terrorists” should not be released. “We believe that all captives should be returned in agreement, from a position of strength,” Miran said.
“I am against this current agreement because, firstly, it will not bring back all the captives. It will be a partial release, the rest will probably be neglected,” Miran told CNN.
He also believes that the release of Palestinian prisoners would be catastrophic for Israel.
“We can’t have these monsters like our neighbors across the border. Sinwar was released as part of the deal [Gilad] Shalit [quando o soldado israelense foi negociado por mais de 1.000 prisioneiros em 2011]and look what he did to us”, he declared.
Miran refers to Yahya Sinwar, the mastermind of the October 7 attack, who was killed by Israel last year. “We cannot agree to a situation where released prisoners will murder our people in the future.”
Israel holds at least 10,000 Palestinian prisoners, according to the Detainee Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners Society, including 3,376 people who have been held under administrative detention – a controversial procedure that allows Israeli authorities to hold people indefinitely for reasons of security without trial or accusation, sometimes based on evidence that is not made public. Ninety-five children are currently under administrative detention, according to the commission.
The proposed agreement will be implemented in three phases, the first of which will last 42 days. In it, 33 hostages held by Hamas and its allies since October 7 will be released, including women, children, men over 50 and injured people. Israel would release “many hundreds” of Palestinian prisoners in return, an Israeli official said, including Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis.
Negotiations to reach the second and third phases — which aim to end the war — would begin on the 16th day of the agreement’s implementation, according to the Israeli official.
Miran said that while he celebrates the release of each hostage, the agreement as it stands would mean that joy for some families would be sadness for others, adding that “this agreement will determine the fate of my brother Omri from rotting in the Hamas tunnels for months or even years”.
The Israeli government believes that 98 hostages are still being held in Gaza — most of whom were kidnapped on October 7, 2023, dozens of whom are believed to be dead.
The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has lasted 15 months, turning Gaza into a desert and displacing at least 90% of Palestinians since October 2023, according to the United Nations. More than 46,000 people were killed – most of them women and children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
