Chief Rabbi's ruling: Releasing terrorists 'permitted' in order to free hostages

Outgoing Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef on Thursday morning urged the Israeli government to sign a ceasefire-prisoner swap deal with the Hamas terror group.

Speaking at an event at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, Rabbi Yosef urged, "They should finish the deal already. There's nothing else to do - release terrorists with blood on their hands, it hurts the heart, we released [Hamas leader] Yahya SInwar and we saw what happened, but this is a matter of immediate life and death."

"If you don't release them, they will kill the hostages, this is a time-sensitive matter of life and death. It could be that these [terrorists] will later go out and kill, that's not immediate, the hostages are immediate."

Rabbi Yosef also noted the opinion of his father, the late Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef: "We are permitted to release all of the accursed terrorists, and later they will do something small and we will immediately kill them. We need to pray that all of them return to their homes and are mentally well, and may we hear good news."

Regarding the IDF, he added, "We must not forget that they are emissaries. All of the soldiers sacrifice their lives. We learn Torah and pray for them."

"They protect us. What would we do if there weren't all of these soldiers? They are G-d's emissaries, they are emissaries of the One Above, they sacrifice their lives for us, we pray for them."