I have been reporting from the Midden -East for 25 years now. And that hackneyed cliché still works … “The more things change … the more they stay the same”.
That does not mean that the three weeks we stayed here have been boring. There have been more ups and downs than a dilapidated roller coaster in an old Luna park.
Our first field shoot was appropriate enough to visit released hostages and families of prisoners of Hamas. Because this is one of the most important topics for the majority of Israelis. 48 people held by terrorists, 20 still alive. Their time of captivity, the almost 2 years of this Gaza war.
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Greg Palkot with released hostages Keith Siegel in Tel Aviv September 2025 (Ben Jary)
We met the families on day 700 of the imprisonment of the hostages. Lishay Lava-Mira begged her husband Omri to get home. Liron Berman was sure that his twin brothers would make it (“they are strong”). And Keith Siegel, a hostage, himself, for almost 500 days, articulated and healthy, looked outside the Israeli government for help. “I call on Trump to continue his efforts.”
Early in our stay there was hope that a new Peace Plan from the US might get a grip. All 48 hostages would be released in exchange for 3,000 Palestinian prisoners and a ceasefire to assess the next steps.
That apparently reasonable plan cost hits on the left, right and center.
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Greg Palkot’s Hotel Live Studio (Greg Palkot)
First a horror that we learned about, because we had ended a quick breakfast in our hotel. Two shooters are shooting a busy commuter bus and bus stop in Jerusalem, causing six dead and much more to be injured. The scenes were horrible and the actions to eliminate the terrorists.
Then, the next morning, while cameraman and I did a routine round-up of the news on the balcony of the hotel that we mention at home, I noticed in the corner of my eye long and dedicated producer Yael in our studio room that jumped up and down.
Israel had the unthinkable, aimed at Hamas’s leadership in what the neutral zone of Doha should have been Qatar. The militants claimed that they discussed the peace plan at the time. That the American proposal became just as dead as victims who managed to hit the Israelis (apparently no leadership).
And then to put the last “paid” for peace talks. The highly acclaimed complete ground invasion of Gaza City was launched by Israel. To complete around 3,000 remaining Hamas hunters and their infrastructure. As Netanyahu said: “What starts in Gaza (the ugly Hamas blood bath and hostages of 7 October) ends in Gaza.”
The leader of the General Staff, LTG Eyal Zamir, carried out a field tour in the Gaza Strip. (IDF spokesperson)
And this is the moment when frustration starts for gray combat reporters such as me, and our first -class war team of Camera, producer Yael and Security Rob. As they have during the war, Israel limits access to the Gaza promotion.
So we depend on local journalists to show us the horror. The destroyed urban scene. And more importantly, the enormous and ugly images of human suffering. Hundreds of thousands of citizens, many not Hamas supporters, who have to do with the living hell that the terrorists and the fighting have imposed them.
Do you remember that rule: “I wouldn’t wish for this on my worst enemy”? Well, maybe I would go with it with regard to Hamas, but not these poor Palestinian children who know nothing about the geopolitics of the situation.
A Gazan family tour near the rubble of buildings during the Eid al-Adha Holiday, in Gaza City, June 6, 2025. (Mahmoud Issa/Reuters)
To their honor, IDF officials tell us that they are slowly going through the lunar landscape that is now Gaza. Beware not to jeopardize citizens and /or hostages. Somehow, with local health officials supported by Hamas who indicate that 65,000 have already been killed after 2 years of war, it seems somewhat after the fact.
But that means again, according to the officials we have spoken, this entire Gaza City process can take before four months are completed. Too long for the moral sappe reservists fighting the war. Too long for the residents who endure it all. Too long for the desperate hostages.
Unless there is a breakthrough.
No wonder that the locals here look at President Donald Trump and/or a series of countries, bodies, figures (yes, pope Leo) to try to undergo outside the local leaders, the previous duels of Israel with enemies such as Hezbollah and Iran seemed to make a well-tailored 21st-century war war. The fighting in Gaza is more like the early 20th century Ugly Second World War Trench Warfare.
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Between our live recordings and reporting in Tel Aviv, we occasionally squeeze out to a few of the bars and restaurants that choke this metropolis at the sea – despite everything, completely lifts. And I wonder how this country would of course be, of course what it would be like for the various Palestinian population without the yoke of war around their shoulders.
No answers this trip.
