Israel's Sephardic Chief Rabbi David Yosef said that as part of a deal to free the hostages from Hamas captivity, Israel should release terrorists who murdered Jews.

"My father (the late Chief Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef) ruled very clearly that it is permitted and you must release terrorists, even many terrorists, even murderers with blood on their hands, in exchange for hostages. I'm not in the negotiations room, I don't know what the conditions are, and what is being offered for what, so I can't give my opinion on the negotiations as a whole. However, on this specific matter of releasing terrorists I stand and say clearly: yes, you must release terrorists to free hostages," Rabbi Yosef said in an interview with the haredi news website Kikar Hashabat.

He emphasized that his statements are based on his father's rulings. "It's based on the ruling by my father, father wrote this ruling before the Entebbe operation, I was with father at the time, he wrote this major ruling which is quoted in the book Yabia Omer that you must release terrorists."

The Chief Rabbi was asked about the fear that the terrorists will return to terrorism and he answered: "We know that the terrorists aren't going to become righteous people, therefore, we have to make prevention efforts, such as expelling them to other countries, but the Halachic question here is about an immediate danger to the hostages versus a future danger, and father answered that the immediate danger comes first."

He recounted meetings with the hostages' families. "Since the first moment, since the beginning of the war, here in this room have sat dozens of representatives of the hostages' families. When you meet them it's heartbreaking, I couldn't hold back, sometimes they live without knowing if they are alive and some of them imagine how much they suffer, it's impossible not to cry for their pain."