The last image Oran Almog saw before losing his sight was dead bodies covered in glass – five of them, members of his own family. A suicide bomber had detonated an explosive belt at a Haifa restaurant, killing Almog’s father, brother, grandparents and cousin.
The terrorist attack killed 21 people and wounded 60, including Almog, who was blinded on October 4, 2003. Now, more than two decades later, the man who dispatched the bomber – Sami Jaradat – has been released from Israeli prison as part of the ceasefire and hostage release deal reached between Hamas and Israel in January.
He is among 1,735 Palestinian prisoners released during the ceasefire agreement in exchange for 33 Israeli hostages.
While most prisoners released have not been convicted of any crime and just one-third were convicted of murder or attempted murder, the Israeli government and media typically refer to all prisoners as “terrorists,” which has driven public perceptions around the deal in Israel.
The news of Jaradat’s release left Almog stunned and speechless.
“I never imagined that he would go out from the jail… I was speechless. It was giving really deep pain for me. Not angry, not disappointed, only feeling something was broken in my heart,” he said.
But soon afterwards, Almog began to realize what he called the “price” of this deal, and believed it was one worth paying.
“I understood if Sami Jaradat will stay in the jail forever, my family who was murdered in the terror attack, they will never return alive. But living Israeli hostages still can come back, so this is what was important for me,” he said.
Almog penned an op-ed in Israeli newspaper Haaretz shortly after he learned Jaradat would be released, urging Israelis to “put aside the disagreements over the price, and focus on the main thing” – referring to the release of hostages.
Protesters’ opposition
Jaradat and 109 other Palestinians were freed from detention on January 30 following the release of Israeli hostages Arbel Yehoud, Gadi Moses and Israeli soldier Agam Berger, who were taken captive during the October 7 attacks.
Almog said it reminded him of the moment his cousin Chen Almog-Goldstein, who was also taken hostage by Hamas with her surviving children on October 7, was released during the first short-lived ceasefire and hostage release deal in November 2023.
“I will never forget this evening when they got the first hug from our family… I understood the joy and happiness of Israelis coming back home,” he reflected.
But Almog’s perspective is not one shared by all Israelis.
Many, including a small number of hostage families that belong to the right-wing Tikva Forum and Gvura Forum, have opposed a ceasefire from the get-go.
Days after the deal was announced on January 15, hundreds of protesters belonging to the two forums took to the streets in Jerusalem, chanting, “Don’t make a deal with the devil!” and “Sinwar was also released in a deal!”
They recall how Yahya Sinwar, the late leader of Hamas and architect of the October 7 attacks, was released from Israeli imprisonment along with 1,027 Palestinians in exchange for captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011.
Yehoshua Shani, the father of an Israeli soldier killed on October 7, invoked that history and called all Palestinians being released “vile murderers.”
“The price of this deal has already been written, we just don’t know who will pay the price,” he said.
Some Israelis oppose the release of Palestinians from Israeli jails and instead insist that defeating Hamas through strong military action should be the top priority for Israel and is the best strategy to bring back the hostages.
Under the first phase of the ceasefire deal agreed between Israel and Hamas, which lasted 42 days and concluded last weekend, leaving the truce hanging by a thread, 33 Israeli hostages were released in exchange for 1,735 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
A ‘bargaining chip’
According to information from the Israel Prison Service and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, the majority of those cleared for release were detained without charge and were not put on trial or given an opportunity to defend themselves.
Of the 1,735 Palestinians, about 15% were convicted of killing Israelis, including civilians and soldiers. Most of them were imprisoned during the first and second intifadas, uprisings by Palestinians against Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank. Another 18% were convicted of attempted murder.
Nearly two-thirds of the total were being held without trial, including 1,000 Palestinians detained in Gaza during the war, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society and the Israel Prison Service.
The remainder were convicted of lesser charges like being affiliated to an “outlawed organization” or “incitement,” a vague charge that has been used to jail Palestinians over social media posts, including those expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
“Israelis believe that a Palestinian that’s being held in Israeli detention – by virtue of being held in Israeli detention – must be a terrorist,” she said.
Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank fall under the jurisdiction of Israel’s military court system, where rights groups say the conviction rate is over 99%.
Human rights organizations have denounced the system as a means to maintain Israel’s control over Palestinians.
“There’s no question that many people were arrested, detained, both in Gaza and in the West Bank, for the purpose of having them as a bargaining chip. And some of those people probably didn’t commit any act, maybe some of them did…the problem is that Israelis are not willing to look at both of those types of prisoners,” Scheindlin said.
Still, despite equating the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to the release of terrorists, Israeli polling suggests a majority of Israelis overwhelmingly support the ceasefire and hostage release deal.
Like most Israelis, Almog has come to prioritize the lives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza over the ‘price’ of freeing Palestinian prisoners convicted of killing Israelis.
But he will not forget that price, nor what it has delivered.
“To understand the price, that my pain brings the Israeli hostages home… is really important to me,” Almog said. “I don’t know, maybe someday I will meet Agam, Gadi and Arbel and feel the full meaning, the full importance of this deal and this price to me.”