Hamas frees 50 hostages and Israel gives up 150 Palestinian prisoners

[RandySF]

on top of a 4 day ceasefire. How is that a “deal”?

[FarPoint]

1. Slowly moving forward....

Keep the pressure on Hamas...

[Think. Again.]

2. It stops...

...the killing of more civilians?

Sounds like a deal to me.

[onecaliberal]

9. It is. A lot of people don't mind killing the brown children.

[tritsofme]

3. Excellent that some hostages are being freed, but extremely sad the price is the release of criminals.

[moniss]

10. According to the earlier news the ones the Israelis are releasing are

mostly women and children.

[radicalleft]

11. You do know that

The IDF routinely holds “prisoners” for years w/o charges and w/o trial for years…much like what the US did with gitmo right?

[David__77]

13. Yeah some of their listed so-called crimes include "police stop".

[Voltaire2]

4. How is it not a deal?

[DFW]

5. This way, both sides get to brag to their home base

Hamas gets to say, "see? For every one of theirs we let go, and most of them were useless to us except as hostages, we brought home three of ours, and all are fighters who can fight again. What brilliant negotiators we are!"

Netanyahu gets to say, "see? Just one Israeli civilian is worth three Hamas fighters, and they just proved they know it. What brilliant negotiators we are!"

The masses are content in their way of seeing things, and the leaders get to revel in their admiration. There are many more Israeli hostages, and there are many more Islamic militants in Israeli custody--all just waiting for their chance to be pawns in this disgusting game.

[CincyDem]

6. The last exchange rate was 1 for 1,000...

…and among the released was the alleged mastermind of 10/7.

This ain’t perfect but it’s good. At some point soon, Israel was going to have to bow to US pressure to pause. So at least they get something for it at a reasonable exchange rate.

The real test will be over the next four days. This can go several ways. Hamas honors the deal and maybe it starts to extend in a pay as you go basis. Hamas has “logistical” issues rounding up the 12/day groups and passively sabotages the deal, seeking to renegotiate in process. Hamas actively sabotages the deal.

I’m withholding judgement until the 50 are gone. Until then, this is simply an opportunity for Hamas to reload both physically for the local ground war and ideologically for the global PR war.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. It's a deal because they agreed to it. That's how deals work.

The request for the release of those prisoners has been made for months. It predates the Oct. 7 attack.

[Vogon_Glory]

8. While I compliment the American and Israeli negotiators who worked so

hard trying to arrange a prisoner swap, I won’t celebrate until the hostages are freed and return to safety. There is still plenty of time for HAMAS to play bad-faith, Lucy-and-the-football games.

[LexVegas]

12. That is the result of negotiating with barbaric animals. nt