More than 240 people were kidnapped on October 7 at gunpoint from military installations, sizable outdoor dance events, and residences or places of business in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip.
As the conflict in Israel worsens, the hostage’s lives are in jeopardy and will ultimately determine their fate.
Their smiles stretched to the front of a shopping centre, to the skyscraper facades, and to the walls separating Tel Aviv’s restaurants and bars. Of them, there were roughly thirty; the youngest was barely nine months old. However, the majority of their whereabouts are unknown because they were kidnapped and taken to Gaza by Hamas gunmen.
For Israelis getting over the horrifying massacres that happened a month ago, it is still traumatizing. All that remains of my aunt is this single photo. “Two terrorists on a motorcycle kidnapped her,” Eyal Nouri informs me, holding up a picture of 72-year-old Amina Moshe being driven from Nir Oz, the kibbutz she had lived on for fifty years.
“There should be no conflict of any kind involving elderly women, infants, or children. Israel has experienced numerous hostage situations over the years, despite this being the largest. In the 1980s, the nation demonstrated its willingness to pay hefty costs in exchange for its citizens’ release from prisoner swaps with armed groups in Lebanon and Palestine. In one exchange, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, who went on to found Hamas, was released. To ensure that Israeli soldiers received proper Jewish burials, even their corpses were traded.
Then, during a cross-border raid in 2006, Hamas abducted 19-year-old Gilad Shalit, a soldier. In an agonizing five-year campaign to bring him home, his father Noam emphasized the “unwritten contract” that exists between the state and its conscripts.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved the largest prisoner exchange for a single soldier in history, both then and now. Over a thousand prisoners were freed, among them Yahya Sinwar, who later became the leader of Hamas in Gaza and is believed to have planned the October 7 attacks.
According to a key participant in the Shalit deal, there are significant differences between the two situations that will prevent any comprehensive deal from being completed. Our time frame to build trust with Gilad Shalit was five years and four months. “What happens to the hostages will be decided in the next few days,” says Israeli peace activist Gershon Baskin, who managed covert backchannel contacts with Hamas.
He claims that the scope of the atrocities is the primary obstacle this time. “Hamas has gone too far, and it is unthinkable that they will be in control of Gaza when this conflict is done,” Mr. Baskin claims. “There seems to be an inherent paradox in attempting to reach a settlement with individuals you plan to murder.”
An American-Israeli mother and daughter were freed early on thanks to a broker provided by Qatar, and Egypt assisted in the hostage-taking of two elderly Israeli women. But no more substantial agreement has materialized since.
In exchange for a five-day ceasefire, the military wing of Hamas announced this week that it was prepared to release up to seventy women and children detained in Gaza. In a Sunday interview with the US network NBC, Mr. Netanyahu mentioned the potential for a deal. Since then, US President Joe Biden has said that he is speaking with Israeli officials every day to negotiate a ceasefire for the hostages. Israel has publicly rejected this on the grounds that Hamas would use the opportunity to regroup, claiming that they would use it for that purpose. It has indicated that it might consent to shorter humanitarian breaks in the fighting.
To demand action from their government, a sizable gathering set out on Tuesday on a 40-mile (63-kilometer) march from Tel Aviv to the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem. Fears for the hostages increase with every day that goes by. Numerous dead have reportedly been killed by Israeli airstrikes, according to Hamas. Although Israelis are accustomed to striking agreements, the intensity of the present conflict gives urgency a whole new meaning.
