How Can Netanyahu Smile? When 20 Hostages Come Home and 2,000 Prisoners Walk Free

As Hamas frees twenty Israelis and Israel releases two thousand Palestinians, the so-called victory feels painfully hollow.

When I saw Netanyahu smiling beside Donald Trump, I couldn’t help but wonder — what exactly is he celebrating?
Two years of war. Two thousand soldiers dead. Thousands more maimed. And now, after all the blood and rubble, Hamas has released 20 hostages, while Israel has freed 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

That’s not triumph. It feels like surrender wrapped in ceremony.

A Deal That Feels Uneven

For many Israelis, this exchange was the moment the mask slipped. Two years of promises — destroy Hamas, bring every hostage home, make Israel safer. Instead, the war ends with Hamas still standing, still armed, and still governing parts of Gaza.
The price? Thousands of Israeli lives and a deal that looks less like victory and more like damage control.

Families of fallen soldiers are asking what all this was for. Their sons fought in Gaza’s tunnels believing they were defending the country’s future. Now those same families watch televised smiles and handshakes as if nothing happened.

One mother said on Israeli Channel 12, “They call it peace. I call it abandonment.”