How would releasing the prisoners stop the settlers and other issues?

What Israel has been doing for decades at this point is completely unacceptable. Hamas is a bunch of terrorists, but in context they are the inevitable outcome of Israel's continuous mistreatment and ongoing antagonism against all of their neighbors stretching on for fifty years.

You really have to wonder what the hell is wrong with the Israelis that they can't stop being aggressive towards literally everyone around them.

Agreed that Israel could have taken another path the last couple decades, but it's also unreasonable to omit that they are surrounded by neighbors that want to kill them. Iran and their proxies.