Freedom, Rediscovered
To those released from Gaza and elsewhere — and to their families — I say from the bottom of my heart: welcome home.
That word, home, may feel both familiar and foreign.
I remember my own first day of freedom after being held hostage in Cuba for 1,481 days. The air felt heavier than I expected. The food was too rich. Even the ordinary sounds of daily life startled me.
I was profoundly grateful — but also haunted by guilt. Joy for my release mixed with sorrow for those who did not survive.
Freedom, I learned, does not arrive all at once. Healing takes time. But it also carries responsibility — not just to live again, but to help ensure others never endure the same suffering. That responsibility belongs to all of us.
The Cost of Looking Away
What if world leaders treated hostage-taking with the same urgency as epidemic prevention?
What if governments acted when funds were funneled — sometimes through allies — to known hostage-taking entities?
Could foresight and coordinated diplomacy have spared even some of the horrors witnessed in Gaza and Israel?
As we witness the release of 20 surviving and 4 deceased hostages, and await the return of 24 more, we must ask:
What will we do differently this time?
If we stop at mourning, we will have learned nothing.
How Hamas Became a Hostage-Taking Machine
To prevent future atrocities, we must understand the machinery that enables them — and in Hamas’s case, that machinery is money.
Since seizing Gaza in 2007, Hamas built a vast financial empire:
– Domestic Revenues: $350M–$630M annually in taxes, fees, and permits.
– State Sponsorship: Iran provides $70M–$350M yearly; Qatar, over $1.8B between 2012–2023.
– Charitable Fronts: Millions more raised under humanitarian pretenses.
– Investments: A global portfolio worth $500M+ in Türkiye, Sudan, Algeria, and the UAE.
– Illicit Transfers: Informal hawala and crypto networks that bypass scrutiny.
Reports from the U.S. Treasury, Congressional Research Service, and Reuters reveal a web sustained by complacency — and too often, by willful blindness.
This is not governance.
It is a hostage economy.
Hamas Is Not the Victim
In Gaza, families scrape for food and power while Hamas’s leaders live in comfort.
Its 1988 Charter rejects peace and glorifies holy war.
Since taking power, Hamas ruled through corruption, repression, and fear — silencing dissent, diverting aid to weapons, and embedding fighters among civilians.
“Hamas preaches liberation but delivers only fear. Its victims are not only Israeli hostages, but the people of Gaza themselves.”
The October 7, 2023 massacres and kidnappings were not resistance. They were barbarism — acts that deepened the agony of both Israelis and Palestinians.
For Palestinians yearning for dignity, Hamas became not their liberator but their jailer.
Remembrance, Responsibility, and Prevention
All of us share a stake in bringing hostages home — alive, safe, and whole – from wherever they are held.
But remembrance must be paired with accountability.
– For Israel: Confront the failures that made October 7 possible — and the moral hazards that followed.
– For Palestinians: Acknowledge that Hamas’s violence brought devastation, not liberation.
– For the world: End the hypocrisy of condemning terror while allowing, or even enabling, its funding.
Grief must give way to courage — and courage must lead to coordinated action.
A Call to Action
Hostage Aid Worldwide urges leaders, institutions, and citizens to act decisively:
– Expose and block all funding to hostage-taking organizations.
– Hold state sponsors and intermediaries accountable.
– Enforce transparency and sanctions with consistency, not convenience.
– Make prevention a global priority.
Only through prevention can we honor the victims, protect the living, and rebuild trust.
In the End
The dead deserve our remembrance.
The living deserve our courage.
Our shared future demands both.
By: Alan P. Gross – Former Hostage in Cuba (2009–2014) | Founding Member, Hostage Aid Worldwide
