This will be a painful day, one of the hardest we have known, and we have known many. A day of heartbreak, of shattered hope, of the realization that there are no miracles and no justice. A day when the image that perhaps best symbolizes the October 7 attack, Shiri Bibas, her face filled with terror, holding her two red-haired sons, returns to us in two small coffins, alongside a larger one.
The Bibas family was killed, it seems, as early as November 2023, before the first hostage deal was even reached. Hamas claims they were killed in an Israeli airstrike, and the IDF cannot rule it out. Yarden Bibas' captors told him about it in real-time. Only when he returned from captivity last week did he learn they had not lied to him. Today, another chapter in his story will be written: a modern-day Job, his family kidnapped and killed, he himself abducted and held captive for nearly 500 days, his home destroyed, his community at Kibbutz Nir Oz devastated.
There is no doubt that, alongside his unimaginable personal tragedy, and perhaps because of it, Yarden Bibas has placed the return of the hostages above all other national priorities. And he is not alone. Every freed hostage echoes the same sentiment. Some have brought signs of life from those still left behind. Yehuda Cohen said yesterday that he received a message of love from his son, Nimrod, an IDF soldier still held captive in Gaza and not included in the current phase of the deal. Those who were held with him know how fragile and fleeting everything there is. We must save whoever we can, while we still can.
Yarden Bibas and the other returning hostages, including the six set to be freed on Saturday, owe their freedom primarily to President Donald Trump. Without his determination, executed through envoy Steve Witkoff and several other key figures, the hostages would have remained behind. In the Israeli government's list of priorities, they were not at the top. Ample evidence suggests the government worked to stall and obstruct the agreement since May of last year.
The plan is his, the fault isn't
It is important to remember this as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out yesterday at the heads of the Mossad and Shin Bet, David Barnea and Ronen Bar, who led the negotiations until now. Netanyahu did so during a break from his trial, which he had requested for security matters, only for it to turn into a moment of betrayal against those who serve under him and act on his behalf.
As is his habit, he did not do so in his own name, but through an anonymous "senior official", once again proving that courage and truthfulness are not among his strongest traits. Consider his claim the other day that no heavy weaponry would be sent into Gaza, already debunked yesterday.
Netanyahu argued in his statement that the new negotiation team is engaging in "negotiation" rather than "give-and-give" like the previous team. This is a strange claim, not only because Barnea and Bar operated with Netanyahu's full approval and knowledge at every stage. If he had concerns about their performance, he could have replaced them long ago, as suggested by Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot when they sat alongside him in the war cabinet.
Netanyahu refrained from doing so as long as they served his interests. If he has complaints about the current agreement, he should direct them at himself, because this is entirely his plan. It is the "Netanyahu Document" that he formulated nine months ago, including the stages, retreats, and concessions. His attempt to deflect blame onto others, just before the painful blow of receiving the coffins of dead hostages, is a continuation of his pattern, taking credit for successes while shifting responsibility for failures onto others.
However, he will find it harder to do so with Barnea and Bar. Without Barnea (and the IDF), Netanyahu would not have had the intelligence alerts or the successful assassinations of Hassan Nasrallah and Ismail Haniyeh. Without Bar (and the Yamam counterterrorism unit), he would not have had "Operation Arnon" or the elimination of Mohammed Deif and other top Hamas leaders. His attempt to undermine Bar and the Shin Bet is also linked to the "QatarGate" investigation within the Prime Minister's Office, the next step might be an effort to remove Bar and other senior officials.
A failure with no accountability
Political commentators yesterday recalled Netanyahu's history in negotiations, his panic during the Khaled Mashal affair that led to the release of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the 2011 Gilad Shalit deal that freed Yahya Sinwar and 1,026 other prisoners, the Hebron Agreement, and various political deals (like those with Ayelet Shaked and Bezalel Smotrich), in which he was pressured, extorted, and ultimately caved.
But this time, it is about national security and human lives, 59 hostages, both living and dead, who will remain in Gaza after this phase of the deal. Their families will soon realize that the new negotiation team will not reinvent the wheel. Like its predecessor, it will face the same reality and its constraints. For now, at least, the threat of resumed fighting has been lifted, and negotiations for the second phase of the deal have already begun, another claim that was previously dismissed as false. These are two significant steps, alongside discussions on demilitarizing Gaza and finding an alternative governing authority.
But first, we must endure the next 24 hours, a day that, though not officially declared, will be a national day of mourning. It would be fitting for those responsible for October 7 to stand together to receive the bodies, apologize, and then proceed to Nir Oz - the symbol of abandonment from which the Bibas family was kidnapped - and finally, albeit too late, announce the formation of a state commission of inquiry.
Sadly, that will not happen. Even today, the failure remains orphaned.
