Statement: New Jewish Narrative Welcomes Ceasefire and Hostage Release Deal (1-15-2025)
January 15, 2025- New Jewish Narrative (NJN) welcomes the news of a deal to release thirty-three Israeli hostages held by Hamas and other militants in the Gaza Strip, and to begin to bring this horrible war to an end.
The ceasefire will allow for the return of 33 of the hostages held by Hamas and its allies since October 7th, including women, children, men over the age of 55, and wounded people. In addition, we also welcome the reported agreement to allow Palestinians in Gaza to return freely to the north of the strip, and for the Israeli military to begin withdrawing from Gazan population centers during the first phase of the deal. We anxiously await the implementation of the following phases of the deal, which reportedly will start on the 16th day of the ceasefire and which will clear the path for an end to the war and the return of the remaining hostages.
We are relieved to see a pause in the fighting and the release of these hostages. However, we are horrified at the scale of destruction we have witnessed over the past fifteen months and at how long it has taken for the negotiating parties to agree on a deal. Since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Israeli society has been in a state of shock and grief. The attack was an act of terrorism, one that Israeli society and the Jewish community around the world are still reeling from. That grief has only magnified each time news has broken that more hostages, thought to be alive, were in fact killed and will never make it home.
We are heartbroken by the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people in Gaza. Homes, universities, civil society buildings, and aid centers have been reduced to rubble. Once-proud cities have become mass graves. The far-reaching scale of this violence borders on unimaginable– and the human cost is unquantifiable.
New Jewish Narrative’s President and CEO Hadar Susskind said: “I welcome the ceasefire that, hopefully, will begin to shape a better post-war reality on both sides of the Israel-Gaza border. I am thankful for the release of those hostages who will be returned to their families, and my heart aches for those who still await their own reunions. Today’s agreement is a positive step, but it’s only the beginning. The process of building a better future for Israelis and Gazans will be difficult. It must begin now, and it must be supported by the United States and all of those who support peace.”