Doron Steinbrecher, Romi Gonen and Emily Damari were reunited with their families in Israel after 471 days in captivity. Shortly after their arrival, 90 imprisoned Palestinian terrorists were released from the Ofer Prison north of Jerusalem.

Adele, a resident of Kibbutz Nirim, one of the Gaza border areas devastated by terrorists on October 7, described new-found fear.

“My feelings about the whole situation now is complex,” said the 70-year-old. “On the one hand we are releasing convicts, convicted terrorists, to freedom. These are people with radical philosophy and blood on their hands. As someone who lives on the border, I also know that the fact that the Hamas are ending this war feeling emboldened, knowing that they can demand whatever they want from Israel, is a very frightening situation.”

She went on to add, “On the other hand, well they are still left standing, I understand that they have paid a very high price, lost their leaders, and Hezbollah has also been hit hard, Syria is a mess and Israel has shown her massive strength.”

Shay Dickman also had mixed feelings. Her cousin, Carmel Gat, was one of six Israeli bodies recovered from a tunnel in Rafah in September.

She told TPS-IL she was feeling “great anticipation, great excitement,” then went on to express “great anxiety, hoping nothing falls through, that nothing goes wrong.”

Said Dickman, “I know what it’s like to lose, the disappointment of a deal that doesn’t happen, of a deal that’s cut short. This shouldn’t happen to another family.”

But at Tel Aviv’s Hostage Square, local resident Danny Shek told TPS-IL, “These are the first [pieces of] good news in many, many months. On the one hand, when looking at the continuation of this process, there are still many tears to cry. But there’s excitement tonight, enormous excitement. These are three [people] who have been part of our lives virtually, for so, so long.”

Lior Dodi, a 27-year-old from Jerusalem told TPS-IL the ceasefire was a setback for Israel’s war against terror.

“It’s a bad deal, It’s a deal that has to happen, it’s a deal that takes us back 20 years, and there’s nothing to do, they have to come home and we will win afterward,” he said.

“I’m feeling bad about it, I have a lot of friends who died in this war and in 2014,” Dodi added, referring to a seven-week war in Gaza that followed Hamas’s kidnap and murder of three teenagers in Gush Etzion.

Another Israeli, Tali Stern, a 41-year-old mother from central Israel, told TPS-IL, “I have not felt this emotionally drained or on edge since the beginning of the war.”

She elaborated, “I am furious at who we are giving back to these monsters and I think that in the long run this will have disastrous repercussions for our nation and I am waiting with my breath stuck in my throat to see our hostages returned. I am afraid to learn who is no longer alive, and I am afraid to see the physical consequences of more than a year being held by terrorists in horrific conditions.”

She added, “The spectrum of feelings is almost paralyzing and I have been mostly unable to accomplish anything today.”

Shoshana Woznica, a 41-year-old resident from Ramat Beit Shemesh told TPS-IL, “Obviously we all feel strongly that we want the hostages home and safe. We cry and pray for them like they are our own, but putting the rest of the country at risk by releasing dangerous criminals seems extremely wrong and foolhardy. The decision is being driven by strong emotions without logic.”

Woznica argued, “We have made kidnapping extremely worthwhile for them.”

At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 94 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead.