Israel is actually usually willing to free hostages in deals like this, at a high ratio compared to the number of Israelis freed. To Israel, Palestinian hostages are a dime a dozen, most are arrested with little/no clause, and if they ever see a court, it’s a sham military court to just rubber stamp any charges and sentences the IDF wants to hand out. Israel returns hundreds of hostages because they’ll just abduct as many more in the same time period with similarly suspect reasons. It allows them to fulfill their treaty obligations while not really doing so in spirit.
Israel is actually usually willing to free hostages in deals like this, at a high ratio compared to the number of Israelis freed. To Israel, Palestinian hostages are a dime a dozen, most are arrested with little/no clause, and if they ever see a court, it’s a sham military court to just rubber stamp any charges and sentences the IDF wants to hand out. Israel returns hundreds of hostages because they’ll just abduct as many more in the same time period with similarly suspect reasons. It allows them to fulfill their treaty obligations while not really doing so in spirit.