Mitchell Plitnick
Cutting Through / October 12, 2025
Most media are glossing over Israel soon releasing 1,700 Palestinians it abducted and held without charge–in other words, hostages they kidnapped. And they’re not releasing all of them.
For two years, many Israelis and Israel supporters have, quite understandably, fretted ceaselessly about the hostages being held in Gaza. They won the sympathy of the world, even among many who were angered and appalled at Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
I don’t expect most Israelis and the western pro-Israel mob to mention the far greater issue of Palestinian hostages. In their minds, of course, these are “terrorists,” murderers of Israelis who have been imprisoned for their crimes. Except that’s just not true.
In the upcoming hostage exchange, nearly 2000 Palestinians are expected to be freed from Israeli captivity. Of those, only 250 are people convicted of violent crimes, including terrorism and murder.
Setting aside the important question of whether all these people have been proven guilty by any measurable legal standard, the remaining 1,700 or so are Palestinians who have simply been rounded up and imprisoned during the course of Israel’s military operations in Gaza and the West Bank. In other words, civilian hostages.
These are not, as some pro-Israel people ignorant of the realities on the ground might argue, people who were charged with or convicted of “lesser crimes.” These are people whose only crime was being Palestinian, or, at worst, protesting against Israel’s murderous and apartheid actions.
Where, for the past two years, were the cries for their freedom? Perhaps an even better question arises about the treatment of Palestinian prisoners.
Some suffering matters, some doesn’t
We heard a lot of outrage about the emaciated and often miserable appearance of Israeli hostages, especially after Israel escalated its genocide and completely cut Gaza off from all aid.
Kidnapping these people was a war crime. The fact that Hamas and other Palestinian factions had no way to keep them hidden safely or with consistent access to food, water, medication, or sanitary and liveable conditions makes kidnapping them in the first place even worse.
But the fact remains, Hamas said at the outset that the hostages were going to be treated like the rest of the population in Gaza, which means they were in constant fear for their lives; had, at best unreliable access to food, water, and health care; and were forced to live in miserable, unsanitary, unhealthy conditions for two years.
Based on reports from hostages who were freed in earlier rounds of negotiations, the treatment of hostages varied, which is to be expected since they were often being guarded by whomever could be found to guard them. Some seem to have experienced abuse, others less so. None of this is acceptable.
But Palestinian prisoners in Israel faced the same. Those who were released were emaciated, often had untreated wounds and other medical conditions, and reported severe abuse, including torture. The stories of the Sde Teiman prison are gruesome and not atypical of the treatment Palestinians endured not only during this genocide but for years before.
Israel does not have the excuse of being unable to house, feed, and provide medical care for their prisoners. There is no other reason for the condition of Palestinian prisoners than sadism.
Again, it needs to be stressed that these are Palestinian civilians. They are men, women, and many children, and the only thing they all have in common is having committed the crime of breathing while Palestinian.
Palestine advocates, of course, raise this issue, but it’s rarely mentioned even among the liberal outlets that have, in the past few months, found themselves unable to continue covering for or defending Israel’s Gaza genocide.
Israeli life is precious, Palestinian life isn’t
The double standard, the regard for Israeli lives while deeming Palestinian lives lesser or even worthless, is nowhere as apparent as in the attitude toward the two sets of hostages.
On October 8, it was announced that Ahmad Hatem Muhammad Khdeirat, who had been detained in Hebron without charge back in May, had died. Ahmad was 22 years old. He was the 78th Palestinian prisoner/hostage to die in Israeli custody since October 7, 2023.
Where is the outrage over Ahmad’s death ?
Including the 28 whose remains are believed to be in Gaza, 83 hostages have been killed. Many of these died in Israeli military strikes, though the precise circumstances of many of these deaths are unknown or disputed.
But, again, the prisoners in Israel are not under constant fire from a military superpower. They are not being held in a region whose infrastructure has been utterly destroyed, or where food and water for the population at large is often unavailable and always scant. The two situations are not comparable, and yet it is only the Israeli hostage deaths that get attention.
I’ll stress again; these hostages never should have been taken. Hamas wanted hostages because it is the only way they have to free the thousands of Palestinians held in Israel. Israel and the United States have completely blocked every legal and diplomatic avenue to attaining the freedom of these Palestinian hostages. That doesn’t make Hamas’ action legal or acceptable, but it does make it inevitable and understandable.
Maybe if the world had paid the attention to Palestinian kidnap victims—who existed in large numbers for decades before October 7, 2023—that it does to the Israeli ones, those Israelis might not have been kidnapped in the first place. Whether that is the case or not, however, the absence of an outcry for Palestinians is shameful.
For Israel, the hostage issue is about to close – it continues indefinitely for Palestinians
Even now, with the hostage exchange about to take place, there is silence about the fact that Israel will continue to hold Palestinian hostages even after all Israeli hostages are freed.
One particularly high profile hostage is the Palestinian paediatrician Dr. Hussam Abu Safiyeh. Israel will not be releasing him or the Director of Field Hospitals in Gaza, Dr. Marwan al-Hams. Neither man has been charged with a crime, nor has any accusation against them been made public.
Here’s how The Times of Israel describes their ongoing captivity:
“Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a paediatrician detained last year, and Dr. Marwan al-Hams, the Hamas-appointed director of field hospitals in Gaza, detained in July, will not be released from Israeli custody. Israel detained Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, along with nearly 240 others during a raid on the medical facility in December 2024, alleging that Hamas was using it as a command center.”
The Times of Israel is not a center-right news source, but even they couldn’t come up with any excuse for keeping two doctors in confinement. Again, outside of voices who have been supporting the Palestinian struggle for a long time, there is no outrage over this.
Even now, as we hopefully approach the end of this horrific chapter in the ongoing campaign against the Palestinian people, it is not just Israel that is dehumanizing the Palestinians, but the rest of the world. And yes, that includes states that recognized Palestine, those that denounced Israel’s actions, and even many who are now fed up with Israel.
Condemning or criticizing Israel is not the same as treating Palestinians as equal. A good way to tell is to see who tries to argue that there is a difference, on any level, between Israel kidnapping and holding Palestinians hostage and Palestinians doing the same.
Mitchell Plitnick, a political analyst and writer, is the president of ReThinking Foreign Policy; he is the author, with Marc Lamont Hill, of Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics , published in February 2021 by The New Press (New York)
