Hoosier Jewish leaders and scholars celebrated the release of remaining Jewish hostages from the Gaza Strip but expressed caution about next steps toward a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Chabad Rabbi Eliezer Zalmanov of northwest Indiana said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the ceasefire agreement because it led to the release of hostages, but the future of the region remains unclear.
“Very grateful, incredibly happy to see everyone at home,” said Zalmanov. “When the hostages were finally brought home, it was a feeling of euphoria. The emotional tug-of-war is that we're very concerned about what's going to happen in the future, like what's going to happen next.”
On Monday, Hamas released all 20 living Israeli hostages. In exchange, Israel released about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Israel received the remains of two more hostages on Wednesday, shortly after its military said one of the eight bodies previously handed over was not that of a hostage. Israel is awaiting the return of the bodies of 28 hostages.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants swept into southern Israel, attacking military bases, farming communities and an open-air music festival. The attacks killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people. Most of the hostages were released under previous ceasefires or other agreements reached in late 2023, according to the Associated Press.
The ceasefire plan unveiled by President Donald Trump called for the handover of all hostages – living and dead – by a Monday deadline. But according to the agreement, if this did not happen, Hamas was to share information about the deceased hostages and try to hand them over as quickly as possible.
Hamas moved on Friday to strengthen its fragile ceasefire agreement with Israel, reaffirming its commitment to the agreement's terms, including a pledge to hand over the remains of all dead Israeli hostages.
The militant group's statement, issued early Friday, followed a dire warning from Trump that he would give Israel the green light to resume war if Hamas did not keep its side of the agreement and return all the hostages' bodies.
Hamas, however, claims that some of the bodies were buried in tunnels that were later destroyed by Israel, requiring heavy machinery digging through the rubble to be recovered.
The group also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his call to cut aid to Gaza, saying it was an attempt to manipulate humanitarian needs “for political gain.”
In a follow-up statement on Friday, Hamas called on mediators to increase the flow of aid into Gaza, speed up the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and begin the reconstruction process, especially of houses, hospitals and schools. He also called for work to “begin immediately” to create a committee of independent people to govern the Gaza Strip, as well as for the continued withdrawal of Israeli troops from agreed areas.
Netanyahu said Israel “will not compromise” and demanded that Hamas comply with demands laid out in the ceasefire agreement for the return of the hostages' bodies.
Pierre Atlas, a fellow at the Center for Middle East Studies at Indiana University in Bloomington, said the deal to return Israeli hostages and provide aid to Gaza “was a big deal” but that the ceasefire was “fragile.”
“This is definitely a step in the right direction, but there is a long way to go,” Atlas said. “Ceasefires are always fragile and very easy to break because all you need is a few extremists to do something and it can happen.”
Elizabeth Colon, president of Temple Israel in Valparaiso, noted that the first part of the agreement has not gone smoothly, making it difficult to fully trust the process.
“There were 28 hostages in captivity; (Hamas) released the living hostages but did not release the remains of the rest. We are still praying that they will release them so they can be laid to rest at home,” Colon said. “It's tiresome: 'They're going to be released!' then no, they don’t exist.”
However, the community's support has been heaven-sent, even two years after the event.
“The people who came to pray at our (Temple Israel) doors are still coming two years later. It's really encouraging,” she said. “There's also the resilience of Israel; you continue to live your life even when you're there. Many of us have family and friends there, and they find ways to reach out for help.”
According to Atlas, the history of relations between Palestinians and Israel goes back 100 years, dating back to the British Mandate of Palestine, which lasted from 1922 to 1947. At the time, the Jewish and Arab peoples were thinking about how to draw the maps, but it was not easy because each side wanted their own state, Atlas said.
In 1947, Britain withdrew from the agreement and asked the United Nations to resolve the issue, Atlas said. The United Nations proposed a two-state solution, which the Jewish side accepted and the Arab side rejected, he said.
War broke out in 1948, resulting in Jordan taking the West Bank and East Jerusalem and Egypt taking the Gaza Strip, which remained under Egyptian military occupation from 1949 to 1967, Atlas said.
The Six-Day War broke out in 1967, resulting in Israel capturing the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, among other territories, Atlas said. According to him, that is when Israel began to occupy the Palestinians.
Hamas was founded in 1987 as a jihadist Islamist Palestinian resistance movement against the secular Palestine Liberation Organization, Atlas said.
In 2005, Israel left the Gaza Strip but remained in the West Bank, Atlas reported. The following year, elections were held in Palestine, with Hamas winning in Gaza and the Palestine Liberation Organization faction Fatah winning in the West Bank.
Palestinians in Gaza voted for Hamas in elections because its leaders portrayed themselves as Islamists and less corrupt than the PLO, Atlas said. Additionally, according to Atlas, some Palestinians in the Gaza Strip voted for Hamas in protest of the PLO.
According to Atlas, after the elections, Hamas and Fatah began fighting in the Gaza Strip, and Hamas won. According to Atlas, by 2007 Hamas controlled the Gaza Strip and they used the area to launch rockets at Israel and built hundreds of miles of tunnels under the Gaza Strip.
This led to mutual attacks between Israel and Hamas, Atlas reported. On October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel and took hostages, Hamas violated a two-year ceasefire, Atlas said.
“It was a surprise attack,” Atlas said. “Israel should have seen this coming, but they didn't. From the Israeli intelligence perspective, it was a complete catastrophic failure.”
Over the years, Israel's approach to fighting Hamas has been to retaliate more forcefully, Atlas said. As the recent fighting progressed, Israel's actions “became more brutal,” Atlas said, leading to the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians, restricting aid to the Palestinians and destroying much of Gaza's infrastructure.
According to Zalmanov, throughout the war, the Palestinian people were also victims of Hamas.
“It’s sad to see how innocent people suffer through no fault of their own,” Zalmanov said.
The problem moving forward, Atlas said, is that Hamas and Netanyahu do not believe in a two-state solution or a state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel. Serious questions remain about Hamas' rule in Gaza and how to rebuild the area, Atlas said.
“At any moment this process can easily be interrupted, and that is a real problem,” Atlas said. “Feelings are so strong on both sides now. There are probably not many ordinary Israelis and ordinary Palestinians today, in 2025, who can seriously think about a two-state solution and the presence of the other side.”
According to Atlas, wars usually end in military victory or a negotiated settlement. Given the history of Israel and Palestine, Atlas said a negotiated settlement, like a two-state solution, is the strongest solution.
“Many scholars, as well as many people on the Israeli and Palestinian sides, understand that there is no military solution to the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There must be some type of negotiated settlement, and a negotiated settlement means the creation of two separate states,” Atlas said.
Zalmanov said that everyone in the region wants peace, not war, but peace “must come in the right form and under the right circumstances.”
“We hope for a time when all nations can lay down their arms, all nations can live side by side in harmony, all people… can live side by side peacefully,” Zalmanov said.
The Associated Press contributed.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
