Journalist’s notebook note: hostages, hopes of peace and brutal reality of the Gaza War

I have been reporting from the Middle East for about 25 years now. And this hackneyed cliché still works … “the more things change … the more they remain the same”.

This does not mean that the three weeks we stayed here this time were boring. There were more ups and downs than dilapidated roller coaster in an old Luna park.

Our first set on the field was sufficiently suitable for visiting released hostages and families of Hamas captives. Because, for the majority of Israelis, it is one of the most important subjects. 48 people held by terrorists, 20 still alive. Their imprisonment time, the almost 2 years of this Gaza war.

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Gray Palkot’s Hotel Live Studio (Gray palkot)

We met the families on day 700 of the captivity of the hostages. Lishay Lava-Mira begged that her husband Omri is coming home. Liron Berman was sure that his twin brothers would do it (“they are strong”). And Keith Siegel, a hostage, himself, for almost 500 days, articulated and healthy, looked beyond the Israeli government to get help. “I call Trump to continue his efforts.”

At the start of our stay, there was hope that a new United States peace plan could gain ground. The 48 hostages would be released in exchange for 3,000 Palestinian prisoners and a cease-fire to assess the next steps.

This apparently reasonable plan has shots on the left, right and center.

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(Gray Palkot with the safety of Fox News Rob Gray and Camerman Ben Jary.)

First a horror that we learned when we had finished a quick breakfast at our hotel. Two armed men pulled a suburban bus and a bus stop in Jerusalem, leaving six dead and many more injured. The scenes were horrible and the actions to eliminate courageous terrorists.

Then the next morning, when the cameraman ben and I did an overview of the news on the hotel balcony that we call here, I noticed in the corner of my long time and the devoted producer Yael inside our studio room jumping from top to bottom.

Israel had made the unthinkable and targeting Hamas leadership in what should have been the neutral area of ​​Doha, Qatar. Activists said they were talking about the peace plan at the time. This American proposal has become as dead as all the victims that the Israeli managed to strike (apparently no direction).

And then put the final “paid” for peace talks. The invasion of the large -scale soil very praised by Gaza City by Israel was launched. To finish some 3,000 remaining Hamas fighters and their infrastructure. As Netanyahu said it “which begins in Gaza (the ugly of the Hamas massacre and the hostage taking of October 7) ends in Gaza.”

The general chief of staff, the LTG Eyal Zamir, made a visit to the field in the Gaza Strip. (TDI spokesperson’s unit)

And it is at this point that frustration settles for graying combat journalists like me, and our team from the first war of the Ben camera, the producer Yael and the security Rob. As they did throughout the war, Israel limiting access to the action of Gaza.

So we depend on local journalists to show us horror. The urban scene destroyed. And above all, the vast and ugly images of human suffering. Hundreds of thousands of civilians, many of Hamas supporters, having to face living hell that terrorists and fighting imposed on them.

Remember this line, “I wouldn’t like that on my worst enemy”? Well, I might go with Hamas, but not these poor Palestinian children who know nothing about the geopolitics of the situation.

A family walk from Gazan near the rubble of buildings during the Aid Al-Adha holidays in Gaza City on June 6, 2025. (Mahmoud Issa / Reuters)

On their credit, Tsahal officials tell us that they slowly move into the lunar landscape which is now Gaza. Be careful not to endanger civilians and / or hostages. In one way or another, with local health officials supported by Hamas indicating that 65,000 have already been killed after 2 years of war, it seems a little afterwards.

But that means, once again, according to the officials to whom we have spoken, this whole process of Gaza City could take up to four months. Too long for reservists with morale fighting war. Too long for the inhabitants to harden everything. Too long for desperate hostages.

Gray Palkot with hostage released Keith Siegel in Tel Aviv September 2025 (Ben Jary)

Unless there is a breakthrough.

No wonder the inhabitants here turn to President Donald Trump and / or a range of countries, bodies, figures (yes, Pope Leo) to try to intercede beyond local leaders, the former duels of Israel with enemies like Hezbollah and Iran seemed to be war goods of the 21st century well-regulated war. The fighting in Gaza is more like the war of the trenches of the First World War in the early 20th century.

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Between our live plans and the reports to Tel Aviv, we sometimes went to some of the bars and restaurants that dot this metropolis by the sea – despite everything, performing a complete inclination. And you ask what this country would look like, of course, what it would look like the Palestinian population wonderfully diverse without the yoke of war around their shoulders.

No answers this trip.