The second Ashraf Zughayer, a Hamas chief in Israeli jail, heard in October 2023 that Palestinian militants had taken hostages, he knew his life sentence for murdering six folks in Tel Aviv may quickly be wiped away, he stated.
It took greater than a yr. However in late January, as a part of the cease-fire and hostage launch deal between Israel and Hamas, Mr. Zughayer, 46, rode by way of the streets of East Jerusalem on a truck festooned with inexperienced Hamas flags, surrounded by jubilant supporters.
Thirty miles away, Tova Sisso, whose mom was killed within the Tel Aviv assault, watched with horror. Her mom, Rozana, had survived the Holocaust solely to be killed in a 2002 suicide bombing that Mr. Zughayer helped orchestrate.
“Seeing him being celebrated like this tears open a deep wound yet again,” Ms. Sisso stated. “My pleasure in life was stolen from me that day.”
For the reason that truce started final month, Israelis and Palestinians have been gripped by photographs of emotional homecomings which have summoned a welter of ache, happiness, frustration and grief. The scenes lower to the center of what number of on each side perceive the cycle of violence that has haunted their households for many years.
For Israelis, watching freed hostages reunite with relations has been a rare moment of national catharsis because the Oct. 7, 2023 assault that killed 1,200 folks, noticed 250 taken hostage and ignited the devastating struggle in Gaza. However they’ve additionally been angered and deeply dismayed by the discharge of Palestinian prisoners like Mr. Zughayer in trade.
Palestinians have greeted hundreds of prisoners launched by Israel. They included some detained with out expenses or for minor offenses, a bunch that Palestinians usually view as successfully hostages themselves. Beneath the deal, Israel dedicated to releasing 1,000 Gazans, most of whom had been held with out something resembling a legal trial.
However Hamas additionally secured the discharge of lots of of prisoners like Mr. Zughayer — militants convicted of lethal assaults in opposition to Israelis. Greater than 200 of these freed had been serving life sentences for homicide and different offenses for his or her position in bombings, shootings and different acts of violence.
Israelis see them as murderous terrorists, noting many intentionally focused civilians. Many Palestinians name them heroes in a wrestle in opposition to Israel’s decades-long occupation.
“A nation that desires to interrupt free should combat for it,” Mr. Zughayer stated shortly after his launch, sitting in his mother and father’ entrance yard. He refused to debate whether or not the Oct. 7 assaults had efficiently superior the Palestinian nationwide trigger.
Palestinians are cut up over the 2023 assaults led by his group. Not less than some say they were a devastating mistake for having prompted Israel’s sweeping army response, which has killed tens of 1000’s of Palestinians and destroyed a lot of Gaza.
“It’s good that there’s a prisoner deal, but it surely didn’t require all this bloodshed and destruction,” Ahmed Yousef, a veteran Hamas member, stated in a cellphone interview from southern Gaza. “Oct. 7, for my part, was a horrible error.”
In late January, Mr. Zughayer’s household held a subdued celebration at their East Jerusalem house to welcome him again, cautious of Israeli restrictions on “expressions of pleasure” for freed militants. Israel annexed East Jerusalem after the 1967 struggle in a transfer not acknowledged by many of the worldwide group.
Teenage relations bustled round a quiet courtyard, pouring espresso and handing out sweets. Others held on each phrase uttered by the thin, black-bearded Mr. Zughayer, who appeared barely dazed to be seeing the surface world for the primary time in years. A slim inexperienced scarf emblazoned with a Hamas brand hung round his neck, till a toddler took it away.
“My son’s imprisonment was a badge of honor,” stated Mr. Zughayer’s father, Munir, a group organizer who liaises between residents and Israeli authorities. “You may enter jail for thieving or criminality. However I’m not the daddy of a legal, I’m the daddy of a hero.”
The 2002 bombing that Ashraf Zughayer helped perform killed six civilians: 5 Israelis and a British Jew. The bomber, sporting an explosive vest, had mounted a bus in Tel Aviv and detonated his cargo as quickly because the bus started to maneuver, in keeping with courtroom filings.
Yoni Jesner, a 19-year-old non secular pupil from Scotland, was a type of killed within the explosion. His household selected to donate his organs, one among which was given to a younger Palestinian lady, his brother Ari stated in an interview.
Mr. Zughayer was convicted of driving the bomber to his goal. As a resident of Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem, he held an Israeli ID that allowed him to simply slip out and in of the West Financial institution. He was concerned in planning one other assault when he was arrested, in keeping with Israeli courtroom filings.
Munir Zughayer stated he hoped for a standard life for his son and a peaceable decision to the battle — one that may enable each Israelis and Palestinians to reside “in equality and with human rights.” His son stated that he hoped to pursue a doctorate in political science, and was exploring choices within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution.
As night time fell, Israeli troopers raided the house, weapons drawn and loaded, after which assaulted the elder Mr. Zughayer, in addition to a disabled relative and a reporter for The New York Times.
The troopers detained a number of of Ashraf Zughayer’s siblings, accusing them of waving Hamas flags and taking pictures within the air. The household denies the allegations, and nobody was visibly armed on the occasion.
Almost a month later, the Israeli police launched them, however charged Mr. Zughayer and two of his relations with driving unsecured at the back of a pickup truck on the afternoon of his launch, in keeping with a police assertion. They face doable fines for the cost.
Israeli jail interrogators steadily requested Mr. Zughayer whether or not he felt any regret, he stated. He had as soon as believed within the peace course of, he stated, however misplaced hope after watching experiences of Palestinian civilians, including children, shot lifeless by Israeli troopers with obvious impunity.
“Our objective isn’t to harm civilians. We had been pressured into it,” he stated, declining to extensively talk about the assault. “If the authorized system right here had been simply, I’d see this entire factor in a different way.”
As soon as convicted, Mr. Zughayer was assigned to a jail wing dominated by Hamas detainees. One was Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief who later masterminded the 2023 assault. Mr. Sinwar taught his fellow inmates Hebrew to higher perceive their shared enemy, Mr. Zughayer recounted.
“I used to assume that Israeli society was a monolith,” he stated. By way of learning the language and historical past of the Jewish folks, he realized that Israelis weren’t of 1 thoughts. “Some need peace, and a few don’t,” he stated.
Throughout his time in jail, Mr. Zughayer realized fluent Hebrew, incomes a grasp’s diploma from an Israeli college. He additionally turned a prime member of Hamas’s jail management, charged with conveying calls for in negotiations with their jailers.
However he stated he was as shocked as his Israeli guards when Hamas fighters swarmed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
That morning, Palestinian prisoners hunched over small televisions of their cells, watching in disbelief as Israeli information retailers confirmed Hamas gunmen driving through the Israeli city of Sderot.
Hours into the assault, the guards took away the televisions. Prisoners then huddled round a radio, the place they heard that Hamas had seized Israeli hostages earlier than it too was taken away.
After the Hamas-led assault, the guards started treating imprisoned Palestinians far more harshly, stated Mr. Zughayer. Not less than 10 Palestinian prisoners died in Israeli jail final yr, in keeping with the Israeli jail service; autopsies confirmed at the very least some bore indicators of bodily trauma, in keeping with postmortem reports.
Israeli hostages who had been freed throughout the cease-fire additionally emerged gaunt, some having misplaced dozens of kilos throughout their captivity.
Since Mr. Zughayer’s launch, Israel and Hamas have accomplished a number of extra transfers of hostages and prisoners, every of which has elicited intense, conflicting feelings amongst Israelis and Palestinians.
When one of many hostages was freed, “it felt like a member of the family coming house,” stated Mr. Jesner, regardless of his combined emotions over Mr. Zughayer’s launch.
Nir Zinger, whose brother was killed within the Tel Aviv bombing, vividly remembers the second in 2002 that he picked up the cellphone and heard in regards to the assault. He stated he thinks about his brother, Ofer, nearly each day.
Seeing Mr. Zughayer stroll free was tough, he stated, however he referred to as it price it to save lots of extra of the residing hostages.
“We all know the which means of grief,” Mr. Zinger stated. “We don’t need different households to must endure that ache.”
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