Outside of an individual’s personal joy of their family’s achievements, there cannot be any greater joy than what was seen when three young Israeli women were released by their captors after 471 days in captivity. The looks on their faces and that of their relatives of joy, happiness, and relief, cannot be duplicated.

Others are being released. But at what price?

Significant concessions to the Hamas kidnappers should never be called a “deal,” said Professor Alan Dershowitz. “It was extortion. Would you call it a deal if somebody kidnapped your child, and you ‘agreed’ to pay ransom to get her back? Of course not. The kidnapping was a crime. And the extortionate demand was another crime.”

This cycle of violence must be stopped. Hamas fired 13,224 missiles/rockets toward Israel in 2008, 2012, 2014, 2021, 2022, and early 2023 resulting in 95 Israeli military/civilian casualties and 948 injured. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas militants attacked Israel slaughtering over 1,200 people and kidnapping 245. From Oct. 7 through Jan. 22, 2025, the Israeli military suffered 841 casualties and 5,656 injuries, including 838 listed as “severely wounded.”

Hamas often locates military hardware and stores extra rockets, rifles, and munitions near schools, homes, and hospitals thus using citizens as human shields. Because each life is precious, Israel goes to great lengths to protect civilians by dropping leaflets and robocalls to homes near a target, oftentimes followed with personal phone calls begging people to leave an area.

Gazans are at the mercy of Hamas, a terrorist group, and they have paid a heavy price for Hamas’ actions. Their casualties are announced by the “Gaza Health Ministry,” which is run by Hamas. Recent announcements are claiming 46,000 to 47,000 Gazans killed, always including a disclaimer that the Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The first analysis of statistics release by the Health Ministry was performed by Prof. Abraham Wyner of the University of Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. in statistics from Stanford University. His analysis was titled, “How the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbers.”

Wyner states, “The first place to look is the reported ‘total’ number of deaths. The graph of total deaths by date display death rates increasing with an almost metronomical linearity,” in the fashion of a line. “This regularity is almost surely not real. One would expect quite a bit of variation day to day. In fact, the daily reported casualty count over this period averages 270 plus or minus about 15%. This is strikingly little variation. There should be days with twice the average or more and others with half or less.”

Later NPR published “Why the U.N. revised the number of women and children killed in Gaza” by Aya Batrawy on May 15, 2024. Basically, Hamas did not have the names, ages, etc. attributed to 10,000 deaths. The UN decreased the death toll by that amount and then a couple of weeks later, mysteriously, added 10,000 to the death toll.

Recently, The Henry Jackson Society in England released an extensive study entitled, “Questionable counting: Analysing the Death Toll from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza” by Andrew Fox.

“Serious errors have been discovered on the Ministry’s lists of fatalities,” they reported. And “they likely include around 5,000 natural deaths per year, including cancer patients who were listed by the Ministry for hospital treatment after they had already appeared on fatality lists.” Several examples were listed with the patient’s name in English and Arabic, their ID number and diagnosis, and the date of treatment which was often several weeks after their reported death. Hamas also claimed hundreds of fatalities from attacks which turned out to be caused by misfired rocket launched by Hamas factions. But even with corrections to these situations, the numbers appear to be overstated.

Now Israel is in the throes of getting its hostages returned and is paying a heavy price as well. Israel is trading Palestinians from its prisons for hostages. Various wire services, national, and international news organizations refer to these people as “detainees, security prisoners, and prisoners as if they were arrested on city streets for minor violations. For the most part they are hardened criminals, tried by Israeli courts with similar values as American courts, and serving time for heinous crimes.” Hamas provides Israel with lists of convicts they would like to see released. These lists often contain hundreds or thousands of names. A quick review of one list for murderers serving multiple sentences revealed 12 terrorists, convicted of murdering 222 Israelis, serving 82 life sentences. And Israel is trading 30 or more criminals for each of its hostages!

A quick review — and where this is heading. The people of Gaza elected Hamas over the Palestinian Authority 20 years ago. As presented, the cycle of violence has been ongoing during that time. Hamas places no value on human life, their civilians or Israel’s. They have been stealing humanitarian aid going into Gaza, intended to be given to Gazans, but selling it at exorbitant prices. They claim to have recently signed 15,000 to 20,000 new recruits to replace Hamas members killed in war. The main constant in Gaza over the last 20 years has been Hamas.

Recently some new, innovative, and even off-the-wall solutions for Gaza have been introduced. As discussions and debates on these plans are contemplated, it will not be an easy process. Something that should be obvious by now but needs to be pointed out: Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian Authority, and Qatar should not be allowed to play any role in Gaza’s rebuilding or ordinary Gazans will have no future. The world community cannot be counted upon to pour billions into Gaza every few years. Israel might also be forced to quell attacks against it faster and with more determination to protect its population.

The late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once said, “If the Arabs laid down their guns, there would be no more war. But if we laid down our weapons, there would be no Israel.” Her insight remains true.

Stuart V. Pavilack is the executive director of the Zionist Organization of America: Pittsburgh