On Holocaust Memorial Day, Israel Finds Hope in Hostage Reunions
JERUSALEM, Israel – Four former Hamas-held hostages, Daniela Gilboa, Liri Albag, Naama Levy, and Karina Ariev came home Saturday after more than 470 days in captivity.
Thousands in Israel cheered the Israel Defense Forces soldiers' return. Erik Kwailo, a U.S.-Israeli citizen, joined the crowd. "I live close by and I came to support the cause and we want all the hostages to come home, obviously, so we are waiting for that to happen," he said.
After the October 7, 2023 murders and kidnapping, CBN News interviewed Sasha Ariev, sister of hostage Karina Ariev, who told us about her last conversation with her sister. She told us, "She called to say goodbye and that she loved us. 'Keep the parents strong and do not keep in sorrow.' (The) last text message (was), 'The terrorists – they are here. I love you. I am scared. They are here. They are abducting us.'"
Sasha said of her sister, "Maybe you don't see me crying, but I am broken and devastated inside. I'm just trying to keep it inside for my family and to believe and spread the hope that she and all the other hostages and missing people will come home. I love my parents but she's in first place. She was born for me so I will have someone in my life. I believe she will come back to me."
Karina and now a total of six more hostages are free as part of the latest ceasefire-hostage deal.
Before their release, Hamas paraded the four women on a stage decorated with anti-Israel slogans. In defiance, the women gave the victory sign to the crowd of Palestinians assembled to harass them.
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Meanwhile, some of the 90 Palestinian prisoners released in the deal returned to Ramallah in the West Bank. In all, nearly 2,000 prisoners, some of whom murdered Israelis, are to be freed during phase one of the deal.
The Times of London columnist Melanie Phillips told CBN News, "Now, these, people, many of them, have the most heinous murders on their records – murders of Israeli Jews. And they intend to do it again."
Many analysts, including Phillips, love to see the hostages freed, but they see the agreement as bad for Israel and good for Hamas.
"Israel is required to stand back for at least six weeks, while more and more aid is poured into Gaza. Now, this means that Hamas – there are two Hamas battalions that are still left in Gaza – and Israel is forced to stand by while Hamas reorganizes itself, re-equips itself...recovers its powers, exists, survives – and consequently, it thinks it has won," Phillips declared.
We asked Amiad Cohen of the Israeli Freedom Center, "Do you see that Hamas is reconstituting itself, inside Gaza during this time?"
He replied, "Definitely. Hamas is trying to – it’s invested most of its military power to – control the Palestinians in Gaza. They don't need to invest too much power because the support of the Palestinian people for Hamas is high. But they are investing to be the power to run the Gaza Strip."
On the war front, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed gratitude to President Donald Trump for releasing critical weapons held up by the Biden administration.
"Thank you, President Trump, for keeping your promise to give Israel the tools it needs to defend itself, to confront our common enemies, and to secure a future of peace and prosperity," the prime minister said.
Speaking with reporters on Air Force One, Trump said he would like to see Arab countries take in many of the people of the Gaza Palestinians.
"You're talking about probably a million and a half people," he noted, "And we just clean out that whole thing."
On this Holocaust Remembrance Day, the families of the freed hostages are celebrating what they could only hope they'd see – a reunion with their loved ones.
One photo. It tells an entire story.
— Israel ישראל (@Israel) January 27, 2025
It started with hate. But it didn’t end there.
Today we remember the six million men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust.
We promise to never stop sharing their stories. pic.twitter.com/lbA4bnvLzP
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