Oran Almog, right, addressing the UN Security Council next to Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon on July 25, 2017. Photo: Screenshot

While the release of three Israeli hostages on Thursday brought relief and elation across Israel, it also triggered a wave of mixed emotions, especially among victims who saw the terrorists responsible for their suffering set free. One of them is Oran Almog, who was just ten years old when a Palestinian terrorist disguised as a pregnant woman blew up the restaurant he was in, killing five members of his family and leaving him blind.

Yet, while Thursday’s release of Sami Jaradat — the mastermind behind the October 2003 massacre of Almog’s family — was a deeply personal blow, the return of hostages remained a necessary step, he said.

“That the terrorist who killed my family will find himself free is deeply painful, heartbreaking even,” he told The Algemeiner. “But at the same time, I know that even today — especially today — I must set aside my personal pain and focus on the significance of this deal. And the significance is clear. We are getting our hostages home, and that is the only thing that matters.”

Almog’s father, Moshe Almog, his younger brother, Tomer, his grandparents Admiral (res.) Ze’ev and Ruth Almog, and his cousin, Asaf, were murdered when the suicide bomber, Hanadi Jaradat, a 29-year-old lawyer from Jenin, managed to get past the security guard of the Maxim restaurant — jointly owned by a Jewish Israeli and an Arab Israeli — and blow herself up. Sixteen other people were also murdered in the attack, among them four children. Almog lost his eyesight, and his mother, sister, and aunt were among the 60 injured Israelis.

“Sami Jaradat’s continued imprisonment will never bring my family back, but his release can bring the hostages back home alive,” Almog explained.

Emotional meeting between Agam Berger and her family at Beilinson Hospital in Israel. Photo: Haim Zach (GPO)

Almog knows firsthand what it means to be on the receiving end of a hostage-prisoner exchange.

Just two weeks after marking the 20th anniversary of the Maxim restaurant attack, another tragedy struck his family. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists brutally murdered Nadav and Yam and abducted Chen, Agam, Gal, and Tal from the Almog-Goldstein family in Kfar Azza.

Fifty-one days later, in November 2023, they were released from Hamas captivity in a temporary ceasefire deal.

Under the current ceasefire agreement reached earlier this month, Hamas will release a total 33 Israeli hostages, eight of whom are deceased, according to the terrorist group. In exchange, Israel will free over 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, many of whom were serving multiple life sentences on terrorism offenses. Thursday saw the release of three Israelis — including IDF surveillance soldier Agam Berger, 20, and civilians Arbel Yehoud, 29, and Gadi Mozes, 80 — and five Thai nationals, who were working in Israeli kibbutzim when they were abducted.

“This is a bad deal, very bad, but the alternative is that much worse,” Almog said. “We must look ahead, put today aside, and recognize that releasing prisoners serves a greater purpose.”

However, Almog expressed hope that Israel would move toward a more decisive and uncompromising approach in its fight against terrorism.

“I sincerely hope that as a country, we will have the wisdom to decisively thwart terrorism,” he said, emphasizing the need to break free from the ongoing cycle of prisoner exchanges.

“I don’t want us to find ourselves trapped in a cycle of releasing terrorists, only for them to return to terror, and then repeat the process again and again,” he added.

Almog has previously addressed the UN Security Council, urging action against the so-called “pay-for-slay” scheme, in which terrorists and their families receive monthly stipends from the Palestinian Authority. The terrorist behind the murder of Almog’s family received $3,000 a month while behind bars, making him almost a millionaire by the time of his release.

Still, Almog concluded with a deeply uplifting message for the returning hostages, confident that they would have a chance at a good life, drawing from his own experiences since the terror attack.

Oran Almog. Photo: Facebook

After his release from the hospital, he began a long rehabilitation process, culminating in third place at the World Blind Sailing Championship with Etgarim, a nonprofit founded by disabled veterans and rehabilitation experts, and supported by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ). He was chosen to light a torch at Israel’s Independence Day ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of the state and, despite his disability, insisted on enlisting in the IDF, serving in an elite unit. Today, he is a managing partner at a financial technology fund, works with Etgarim, and shares his story globally through lectures.

“I know the hostages will be able to return, to live, and to live well. With enough support — and a great deal of willpower — it is truly possible to rebuild life, even after the deepest catastrophes,” he said.

The post ‘A Bad but Necessary Deal’: Five Members of His Family Were Murdered — Today, Their Killer Walks Free first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Florida state Sen. Randy Fine. Photo: Reuters

Florida state Sen. Randy Fine emerged victorious on Tuesday in the Republican primary election for the Sunshine State’s 6th Congressional District in the US Congress, making the firebrand conservative the overwhelming favorite to secure the highly-coveted seat to replace now-former Rep. Mike Waltz.

The congressional seat became vacant after Waltz stepped down to become the national security adviser for US President Donald Trump in the White House. Waltz had managed to secure reelection in November with 66 percent of the vote. 

Fine, who is Jewish, has established himself as a stalwart ally of Israel. In the year following the Hamas-led slaughter of 1,200 people and kidnapping of 251 hostages during a cross-border invasion into southern Israel, Fine has spearheaded efforts to uproot antisemitism within the state of Florida. 

In August 2024, he chided Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for taking a trip to Ireland, repudiating the country as “antisemitic.”

“I was certainly disappointed to see not only folks go to what is clearly an antisemitic country that supports Muslim terror, but I was also disappointed that the game wasn’t cancelled, which it should have been,” Fine said. 

Ireland has been a fierce critic of Israel since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre, even joining a legal case brought by South Africa to the International Court of Justice accusing the Jewish state of genocide in Hamas-ruled Gaza. The move, which came after the Irish government in May officially recognized a Palestinian state, led Israel to shutter its embassy in Dublin.

In August 2024, Fine launched an investigation into alleged antisemitic and pro-terrorist ideology within instructional materials at Florida public universities. Fine suggested that activist professors were using textbooks that were indoctrinating students with anti-Israel sentiment. 

“When we learned that Florida universities were using a factually inaccurate, openly antisemitic textbook, we realized there was a problem that had to be addressed,” Fine said. 

Following the New Year’s Day ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in New Orleans, Fine raised eyebrows by repudiating Islam as a “fundamentally broken and dangerous culture.”

“Muslim terror has attacked the United States — again. The blood is on the hands of those who refuse to acknowledge the worldwide #MuslimProblem. It is high time to deal with this fundamentally broken and dangerous culture,” Fine posted on X/Twitter. 

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the foremost pro-Israel lobbying group in the US congratulated Fine for his primary victory on Tuesday.

“We are proud to support pro-Israel candidates who help strengthen and expand the US-Israel relationship. Being pro-Israel is good policy and good politics,” AIPAC, which endorsed Fine, posted on social media.

The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), an organization that attempts to forge closer ties between the Jewish community and the Republican Party, touted Fine’s vigorous crusade against antisemitism within the Florida state legislature.

“Randy Fine is a warrior for his constituents and has served for years in the Florida legislature with distinction,” RJC wrote on X/Twitter. “Randy Fine will be a fierce advocate for the Jewish community in the House of Representatives. Importantly, he has led the fight and been the loudest voice against the rise of antisemitism in Florida and across the country.”

The post Pro-Israel Lawmaker Randy Fine Wins Florida GOP Primary, Favorite to Replace Trump Adviser Mike Waltz in Congress first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Palestinian terrorists surround hostage Arbel Yehoud, held in Gaza since the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack, on the day they hand her over to members of the International Committee of the Red Cross as part of a ceasefire and a hostages-prisoners swap deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Jan. 30, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

Israel on Thursday released 110 Palestinian prisoners after delaying the process due to outrage over the chaotic mobbing of freed Israeli hostages at a handover point in Gaza, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed.

“Israel insists that the lessons be learned and that strict care be taken in the next phases regarding the safe return of our hostages,” the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas freed three Israeli and five Thai hostages after 482 days in captivity on Thursday, with the handovers taking place in both northern and southern Gaza.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, armed terrorists transferred the hostages to the Red Cross amid chaos — with people chanting for Hamas’s military wing, known as the al-Qassam Brigades, and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who masterminded the terrorist group’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and was killed by Israeli forces a year later — while the hostages looked fearful and struggled to walk through the crowd.

WATCH: Arbel Yehoud – a defenseless young woman – is swarmed by a crowd of armed terrorists and Gazan civilians.

If this is just her last moment in captivity, imagine what the past 482 days have been like. #letthemgonow pic.twitter.com/3dlZIYfnWN

— Government Press Office (@GPOIsrael) January 30, 2025

Israeli civilians Arbel Yehud, 29, and Gadi Mozes, 80, were handed over by Hamas to representatives of the Red Cross in Khan Yunis. In photos and videos shared on social media, Yehud was seen scared as she walked through a chaotic crowd, surrounded by rifle-wielding militants, toward the Red Cross convoy.

After the incidents, Netanyahu, along with Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, ordered a delay in the release of the Palestinian terrorists scheduled to be freed under the Gaza ceasefire deal with Hamas until the safe exit of hostages in the next phases of the agreement could be assured.

Jerusalem demanded that mediators Qatar and Egypt, who helped negotiate the ceasefire, “guarantee the safety of our hostages,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement, describing the “horrific scenes” of Yehud and Mozes being taunted and mobbed.

“This is further proof of the unimaginable cruelty of the Hamas terrorist organization,” the statement continued.

Following Netanyahu’s demand, however, “the mediators have conveyed a commitment, according to which the safe exit of our hostages who are due to be released in the next phases has been assured,” his office said.

Earlier on Thursday, Israeli soldier Agam Berger, 20, who was kidnapped from an Israeli military field observers’ base in Nahal Oz, was transferred into Red Cross custody following a Hamas handover ceremony in northern Gaza.

All three Israelis were among the 251 hostages who were kidnapped during the Hamas-led rampage across southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were murdered, on Oct. 7, 2023.

The five released Thais were all foreign agricultural workers who were also taken hostage during the Oct. 7 onslaught. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) named them as Thaenna Pongsak, Sathian Suwannakhan, Sriaoun Watchara, Saethao Bannawat, and Rumnao Surasak.

Returnee Gadi Mozes (80), reuniting with his family at the Ichilov Medical Center.

Maayan Toaf, GPO pic.twitter.com/pGjYes430q

— Government Press Office (@GPOIsrael) January 30, 2025

As part of the ongoing Gaza ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, 110 Palestinian prisoners were released in the third hostage-for-prisoner swap. During the first 42 days of the agreement, Hamas pledged to release 33 hostages in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, where they have largely been imprisoned for involvement in terrorist activities.

Of those set to be released in the coming weeks, 32 were sentenced to life and 48 were serving long sentences, including Zakaria Zubeidi, Mohammad Abu Warda, and Sami Jaradat, according to Israel’s Channel 12 News.

Zubeidi, who led the Palestinian faction Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Jenin and briefly escaped from Israel’s Gilboa Prison in 2021, will not be deported due to his conviction on terrorism offenses rather than murder, and is expected to return to the West Bank.

Abu Warda and Jaradat, responsible for attacks that killed 66 Israelis in the late 1990s and early 2000s, are scheduled to be deported and banned from re-entering Israeli territory.

The post Israel Releases Palestinian Terrorists After Delay Over ‘Horrific’ Gaza Mobbing of Freed Hostages first appeared on Algemeiner.com.