ECAJ statement on ceasefire and hostage deal.

Exec­u­tive Coun­cil of Aus­tralian Jew­ry pres­i­dent Daniel Aghion KC respond­ed to news of the cease­fire and hostage deal say­ing:

The Aus­tralian Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty is great­ly relieved. For the past 15 months, we have watched in dis­may as civil­ian hostages have been held and used as a bar­gain­ing chip to achieve Hamas’ evil ends.

We con­grat­u­late the Israeli gov­ern­ment for achiev­ing a cease­fire and we hope and fer­vent­ly pray that the deal will stick and the hostages will be returned.

There is still the ques­tion of Hamas con­trol of Gaza which will need to be dealt with if the Pales­tini­ans are to have any chance of self-deter­mi­na­tion in the Gaza Strip.

For now, how­ev­er, we are pleased to see a res­o­lu­tion and we hope that this dif­fi­cult war will soon come to a per­ma­nent end with peace for all peo­ples of the region.