“I was there when it started,” Andy says.
Andy, an Australian-born Jewish man now living in Melbourne, lived in Israel for 15 years. He was there on 7 October when Hamas attacked, sparking the 15-month long war – now, perhaps temporarily, ceasing. He was back in Melbourne for the announcement of the ceasefire.
While it is still not clear whether it will come into effect on Sunday as planned, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced on Friday that a deal had been struck with Hamas to return hostages taken in 2023. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will also be released.
In the initial stage of the deal, 33 hostages of an estimated 98 are set to be freed. Netanyahu’s security cabinet and government are expected to meet Friday to ratify it. In the meantime, Israel has continued deadly strikes on Gaza.
Australia’s Jewish community has cautiously welcomed the ceasefire, although there is dismay that not all the hostages will be returned. There are also concerns about the fragility of the deal, and questions about recovery in the region and the future role of Hamas.
“There are positive steps being made,” Andy, who did not want his surname used, says.
“However, Israel is having to make too many sacrifices and ... I’m very sceptical of [Hamas] keeping their end of the bargain.”
Bart, who is in Sydney and also does not want his surname used, says he hopes the ceasefire brings welcome relief and is the first step to a longterm cessation of hostilities.
“It does present a lot of mixed feelings,” he says.
“For a lot of us, the No 1 concern is what the civilians have been going through in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, the absolute devastation by the Israeli government.
“A lot of us will be excited to see the hostages released, but it’s a mixed feeling … the starvation, the lack of aid, the loss that’s already taken place – and the longterm consequences won’t end any time soon.”
Denise, a Jewish woman in Sydney, is happy about the ceasefire but unhappy about the hostage situation.
“I’m very happy, but I don’t know how long it will last because I don’t trust Hamas,” she said.
“And not all the hostages are coming back, and we don’t know how many are alive or dead.”
The president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Daniel Aghion, said the community was “greatly relieved”, having “watched in dismay as civilian hostages have been held and used as a bargaining chip to achieve Hamas’ evil ends”.
Max Kaiser, the Jewish Council of Australia’s executive officer, said the council welcomed the ceasefire and breathed “a sigh of relief for the likely end to this round of violence”. But the deal came “far too late”, he said, and he accused Netanyahu of continuing the war for his own political gain. Pro-Israel organisations had followed the Israeli government “into the moral abyss”, he said, “unashamedly beating the drums of war”.
He called on Australia to join the international community to address “the root causes of this violence”: “Israel’s brutal occupation, unequal treatment, and continued campaigns of violence against Palestinians.”
Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) president, Jeremy Leibler, called the ceasefire a “significant milestone” and said it was “unfathomable that women, children, and the elderly have been held captive in the dungeons of Gaza for over 15 months”.
“We pray the 33 hostages will all be returned alive to their families, but we also must see the release of the remaining 65 hostages as soon as possible,” he said.
ZFA’s chief executive, Alon Cassuto, added that the ceasefire alone would not bring an end to what he described as the “wave of unprecedented antisemitism and [the] breakdown of social cohesion in Australia”.
Andy, meanwhile, asked what ending he hopes the deal between Hamas and Israel will bring, says: one where “all the hostages are returned”.
Bart is concerned about the increased polarisation in Australia as a result of the war, as well as the effect of the incoming Trump administration on the conflict itself.
“But you have to have hope,” he says.
