JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — With the release of 20 Israeli hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners on Monday, local groups on both sides of the conflict that have been raging for more than two years are cautiously celebrating.
October 7th, 2023, is a day that will live in infamy in the Jewish community.
Hamas’ attack on Israel that day claimed the lives of nearly 1,200 Israeli soldiers and civilians.
More than 250 were captured and held hostage.
Now, nearly two years to the day on the Jewish calendar, the 20 remaining hostages were freed as part of a ceasefire deal brokered by the US.
“I think the joy is ecstatic to be reunited with their families. The Jewish community is close, and we all feel that pain when a child is not in his mother or father’s embrace, and be that the parents or the children of the hostages,” Rabbi Shmuli Novack, Co-Director of Chabad of Town Center and UNF, said.
Rabbi Novack told Action News Jax he’s hopeful the ceasefire deal will result in lasting peace.
“Because what is the alternative? We have to be optimistic, but we cannot be naive, and we have to be realistic of what we’re dealing with, the savagery that we’ve seen over the last so many years,” Novack said.
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As part of the deal, Israel is also releasing roughly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom have been held since the October 7th attack.
“We do have a lot of hope that the people of Gaza, the children, the women, the elderly, the sick, that everybody in Gaza will be able to have even just a moment of respite,” Ryan Delaney said with the Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network.
Delaney said he is also cautiously optimistic about the potential for peace, but like Rabbi Novack, he has seen past ceasefires fall apart.
“The suffering that has gone on for these last two years, we cannot consider it to be over right now, today. There is a hard stop to it, and everything is hunky-dory. It’s not,” Delaney said.
On Tuesday night, Rabbi Novack said the local Jewish community will begin its celebration of Simchat Torah, the same Jewish holiday that coincided with the initial attack two years ago.
He said the memories of the lives lost will hang heavy over that ceremony.
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