According to the estimate of the Israeli Defense Forces, Hamas took at least 150 hostages in its surprise attack over the weekend. In addition to Israelis, there are also foreigners among the abducted.
Hamas has previously taken individual Israeli hostages and negotiated a prisoner exchange with Israel, but now the situation is different, says a researcher at the Foreign Policy Institute Timo R. Stewart.
– The huge number of hostages is the biggest exception. This time, taking hostages seems to have been the goal of the entire attack, he says.
The Palestinian extremist organization Hamas started a series of terrorist attacks in Israel on Saturday. In addition to the thousands of rockets fired into Israel, Hamas fighters invaded several Israeli cities for the first time from Gaza, killing and abducting civilians.
Finding prisoners alive and rescuing them is almost impossible
Israel is believed to be preparing a large-scale ground attack on Gaza. According to Stewart, the hostages kidnapped from Israel are a trump card for Hamas, which aims to contain the Israeli attack.
– Israel’s pressure to get the hostages out alive is enormous, says Stewart.
According to him, Israel can try to release the hostages with a special forces operation, or some kind of prisoner exchange must be negotiated with Hamas.
Stewart sees that both options are difficult from Israel’s point of view.
– Hamas has clearly planned its hijacking operation precisely. Therefore, it is likely that the hostages have also been carefully and dispersedly hidden in the Gaza Strip.
– Finding prisoners alive and rescuing them is almost impossible for Israel, he continues.
Negotiating with Hamas is a very repulsive option for Israel. In a possible exchange of prisoners, it would have to release a really large number of Palestinians that Israel really does not want to release, Stewart estimates.
The fate of the young people kidnapped at the music festival is shocking
Shocking videos of the fates of the abductees have been shown on social media, and citizens of several countries have pleaded for their missing relatives.
One of the abductees is an Israeli-German Shani Louk. He was abducted on Saturday from the Tribe of Nova music festival held near the Gaza Strip. As many as 260 young people participating in the festival were killed in a terrorist attack by Hamas.
See in this article how the events at the festivals progressed.
Shani Louk’s mother pleaded for her daughter on Sunday. She said she recognized the motionless figure stripped to her underwear as her daughter from the social media video.
The kidnappers drag the woman, who is twisted into a strange position, into the back of the pick-up truck. The character looks lifeless.
According to Instagram information, Shani Louk had lived in Israel for several years and worked there as a tattoo artist.
Among the abducted are the elderly and children
Hamas has also kidnapped the elderly and children.
In a video circulating on social media, Palestinian children appear to be bullying a distressed Jewish boy taken to Gaza. has not been able to confirm the authenticity or origin of the video.
Scores of Thais killed and kidnapped
At least 20 Thais have died in Hamas attacks and 14 are being held hostage, says the Thai government.
Northeast Thai Thongkoon Onkaew says his son is one of the abductees. Son, Natthaporn Onkaew is one of an estimated 30,000 Thais who are in Israel as migrant workers.
– My only hope is that my son returns home safely, Thongkoon Onkaew told the news agency Reuters.
Among the abducted are also citizens of the United States.
– So far, nothing suggests that foreigners would be treated differently than Israelis, Timo R. Stewart estimates.
Hamas may seek to use even execution videos as a weapon
Hamas has threatened to execute one hostage for every attack carried out without warning by Israel. According to The Washington Post, Hamas has already executed at least four of its Israeli hostages.
According to Stewart, an Israeli ground attack on Gaza is nevertheless still likely.
– Although the release of kidnapped civilians is certainly important, Israel seems to prioritize destroying Hamas’s ability to carry out similar attacks in the future.
According to Stewart, an Israeli ground attack would almost inevitably lead to the execution of the hostages.
– It could very well be that we will see Isis-style execution videos. Hamas may make examples of certain people, because there are a lot of hostages.
Stewart believes that Hamas’s goal is for possible execution videos to spread as widely as possible. Then the continuation of Israel’s attack at the expense of the lives of the hostages would attract the most criticism of all.
Stewart does not think it is likely that Hamas would execute all the hostages taken to Gaza.
– Even if some of the hostages are executed, they are a resource that Hamas should not use up. If there were no more hostages, there would be no basis for any kind of negotiations.