Hoosier Jewish leaders and scholars celebrated the release of the remaining Jewish hostages from Gaza, but expressed caution about the next steps in the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.
Chabad Northwest Indiana Rabbi Eliezer Zalmanov said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the ceasefire deal because it resulted in the release of the hostages but the future of the region remains unclear.
“Extremely grateful, extremely happy to see everyone home,” Zalmanov said. “When the hostages were finally brought home, that was a feeling of euphoria. The emotional tug of war is we’re very concerned about what happens in the future, like what’s next.”
Hamas released all 20 living Israeli hostages on Monday. In exchange, Israel freed around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
On Wednesday, Israel received the remains of two more hostages shortly after its military said that one of eight bodies previously handed over wasn’t that of a hostage. Israel is waiting for the bodies of 28 hostages to be returned.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel, attacking army bases, farming communities and an outdoor music festival. Around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the attacks and 251 were abducted. Most of the hostages were released in previous ceasefires or in other deals dating back to late 2023, according to the Associated Press.
The ceasefire plan introduced by President Donald Trump had called for all hostages — living and dead — to be handed over by a deadline that expired Monday. But under the deal, if that didn’t happen, Hamas was to share information about deceased hostages and try to hand them over as soon as possible.
Hamas moved Friday to shore up its brittle ceasefire agreement with Israel by reaffirming its commitment to the terms of the deal, including a pledge to hand over the remains of all dead Israeli hostages.
The militant group’s statement released in the early hours Friday follows a dire warning from Trump that he would green-light Israel to resume the war if Hamas doesn’t live up to its end of the deal and return all of the hostages’ bodies.
Hamas, however, maintains that some bodies were buried in tunnels that were later destroyed by Israel, and heavy machinery is required to dig through rubble to retrieve them.
The group also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his call to cut aid to Gaza, saying it was an attempt to manipulate humanitarian needs “for political gains.”
In a follow-up statement Friday, Hamas urged mediators to increase the flow of aid into Gaza, expedite the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt and start the reconstruction process, especially for homes, hospitals and schools. It also called for work to “start immediately” on setting up a committee of independents who will run the Gaza Strip and for Israeli troops to continue pulling back from agreed-upon areas.
Netanyahu has said that Israel “will not compromise” and demanded that Hamas fulfill the requirements laid out in the ceasefire deal about the return of hostages’ bodies.
Pierre Atlas, faculty affiliate with the Center for the Study of the Middle East at Indiana University Bloomington, said the deal to return Israeli hostages and provide aid to Gaza “was a big deal,” but ceasefires “are fragile.”
“It’s certainly a move in the right direction, but there is a long way to go,” Atlas said. “Ceasefires are always fragile, and ceasefires are very easy to break down because all you need is a few extremists to do something and it can happen.”
Elisabeth Colon, president of Temple Israel in Valparaiso, pointed out that the first part of the agreement isn’t going smoothly, so that makes it harder to completely trust in the process.
“There were 28 hostages in captivity; (Hamas) released the living hostages, but they haven’t released the remains of the others. We’re still praying that they’ll release them so they can be put to rest at home,” Colon said. “It’s exhausting: ‘They’re going to be released!’ then no, there aren’t.”
Community support, however, has been heaven-sent, even two years after the fact.
“The people who came to pray at our (Temple Israel) door, they still come two years later. It’s really uplifting,” she said. “There’s also the resilience of Israel; you go on with your life even when you’re in it. A lot of us have family and friends over there, and they find ways to reach out to help.”
The history between Palestinians and Israel goes back 100 years, Atlas said, starting with the British Mandate for Palestine, which lasted from 1922 to 1947. At that time, Jewish people and Arabic people looked at how to draw the maps, but it was a challenge because each side wanted to have its own state, Atlas said.
In 1947, Britain withdrew and told the United Nations to resolve the issue, Atlas said. The United Nations proposed a two-state solution, which the Jewish side accepted and the Arabic side rejected, he said.
A war broke out in 1948, which resulted in Jordan capturing the West Bank and East Jerusalem and Egypt capturing the Gaza Strip, which remained under Egyptian military occupation from 1949 to 1967, Atlas said.
The Six-Day War broke out in 1967, which resulted in Israel capturing the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, among other territories, Atlas said. This is when Israel started occupying Palestinians, he said.
Hamas was established in 1987 as a jihadist, Islamist Palestinian resistance movement against the secular Palestine Liberation Organization, Atlas said.
In 2005, Israel pulled out of Gaza but stayed in the West Bank, Atlas said. The following year, Palestine held elections and Hamas won in Gaza and the Palestine Liberation Organization faction, Fatah, won in the West Bank.
Palestinians in Gaza voted for Hamas in the election because its leaders portrayed themselves as Islamic and less corrupt than the PLO, Atlas said. Additionally, Atlas said, some Palestinians in Gaza voted for Hamas as a protest vote against the PLO.
After the election, Hamas and Fatah began fighting in Gaza, Atlas said, and Hamas won. By 2007, Hamas was in control of the Gaza Strip, Atlas said, and they used the area to launch rockets at Israel and built hundreds of miles of tunnels under the Gaza Strip.
This led to back-and-forth attacks between Israel and Hamas, Atlas said. On Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked Israel and took hostages, Hamas broke a ceasefire that had lasted two years, Atlas said.
“It was a surprise attack,” Atlas said. “Israel should’ve seen it coming, but they didn’t. It was a complete catastrophic failure from an Israeli intelligence perspective.”
Over the years, Israel’s approach to fighting with Hamas has been to retaliate harder, Atlas said. As the recent fighting progressed, Israel’s actions “became harsher,” Atlas said, which resulted in the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians, restricting aid to Palestinians, and destroying much of Gaza’s infrastructure.
Throughout the war, the Palestinian people were also victims of Hamas, Zalmanov said.
“It’s heartbreaking to see innocent people suffer at no fault of their own,” Zalmanov said.
The challenge with moving forward, Atlas said, is that Hamas and Netanyahu don’t believe in a two-state solution, or a state of Palestine alongside a state of Israel. Major questions remain on Hamas’ rule over Gaza and how to rebuild the area, Atlas said.
“At any point, this process could easily break down, and that’s a real problem,” Atlas said. “Right now, the feelings are so raw on both sides. There probably aren’t a lot of ordinary Israelis and ordinary Palestinians who today, in 2025, can seriously think about a two-state solution and the other side being around.”
Wars generally end in a military victory or a negotiated settlement, Atlas said. Given the history of Israel and Palestine, Atlas said a negotiated settlement, like a two-state solution, is the strongest solution.
“A lot of scholars, and a lot of people on the Israeli and Palestinian side, understand that there is no military solution to the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There has to be some type of negotiated settlement, and a negotiated settlement means two separate states,” Atlas said.
Zalmanov said everyone in the region wants peace not war, but that peace “has to come in the right form and under the right circumstances.”
“We hope for a time when all nations can lay down their weapons, all nations can live side by side in harmony, all people … should be able to live side by side peacefully,” Zalmanov said.
The Associated Press contributed.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
