After two years in Hamas captivity, 20 Israeli hostages have been released, and nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners were freed, the first steps in a peace deal including a ceasefire and the flow of aid back into Gaza.
Outside a suburban Skokie synagogue, Adrianne Burgher pulled her three sons close and choked back tears as they watched other children cut yellow ribbons off a tree as music in Hebrew pulsed from a speaker.
The ribbons represented the 20 Israeli hostages released by Hamas on Monday as the first step in a delicate U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal. Twenty-eight more ribbons will remain on the tree to represent the hostages who were killed in Hamas captivity. Four of their remains had been returned to Israel as of Monday, the Associated Press reported. The remainder of the bodies are meant to be returned as part of the first phase of the ceasefire deal.
“It’s been a long time,” Burgher said. “Thank God that so many people have come home, but so many have been lost. . I don’t think I processed it until right now, this moment.”
Israel also released about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and promised a rush of food and aid into Gaza, where humanitarian groups have sounded the alarm over mass starvation as Israel’s blockade squeezed the area’s food and resources.
The news of a ceasefire, however, was cautiously welcomed across the Chicago area, where mass protests have called for an end to Israeli raids that have killed nearly 70,000 Palestinians and razed large swaths of Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, when the hostages were taken and nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed in the Hamas attack. Several demonstrations calling for the hostages to be released also have taken place over the last two years.
In the aftermath of the news of a ceasefire, the common thread appears to be that demonstrators at pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli gatherings are holding out hope that the peace deal will stick and violence will cease.
