Day 476 - Excruciating dilemmas as murderers set to be released

Welcome to The Times of Israel's Daily Briefing, your 20-minute
audio update on what's happening in Israel, the Middle East and
the Jewish world.


Senior analyst Haviv Rettig Gur joins host
Amanda Borschel-Dan for today's episode, a
special Friday Focus on the painful issue of the release of
Palestinian security prisoners as part of the hostage
release-ceasefire deal.


Tomorrow, another four hostages are set to be released from Gaza
-- presumably women and presumably alive. Alongside the Israelis'
release, however, up to 200 Palestinian prisoners could also be
released, according to the current formula of 30 Palestinian
prisoners for every civilian and 50 for every female soldier.


Rettig Gur takes on this complicated and emotional subject
through looking at the history of terrorist hostage-taking and
previous so-called exchanges of the abductees and Palestinian
prisoners -- including those who were serving multiple life
sentences.


We speak about the most memorable exchange of prisoners, which
came in 2011 when captured soldier Gilad Shalit was released from
Gaza as 1,027 security prisoners were freed from Israeli prisons.
However, Rettig Gur postulates that the blueprint for that
abduction came much earlier.


For news updates, please check out The Times of Israel’s
ongoing live blog.


Discussed articles include:


Convicted terrorists to be released are ‘an open wound’
for victims’ families


Subscribe to The Times of Israel Daily Briefing on Apple
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podcasts. This episode was produced by the Pod-Waves.


IMAGE: Palestinians celebrate the release of some 90 prisoners
set free by Israel in the early hours of January 20, 2025 upon
their arrival aboard a Red Cross bus in the Palestinian West Bank
town of Beitunia, on the outskirts of Ramallah. (Zain JAAFAR /
AFP)


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