Hamas Attack: Here’s How Hostage Situation May Complicate Netanyahu’s ‘Vengeance’ Plan – News18

As Israeli operation “Swords of Iron” continues against Hamas for the third straight day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a grim dilemma amid a high-stakes situation. With over 700 Israelis killed and dozens held hostage, his response is crucial. Israel’s retaliation is said to have already resulted in more than 400 Palestinian casualties, as warplanes strike Gaza.

Netanyahu has vowed “vengeance” but the fate of the Israeli citizens taken into Gaza complicates how Israel delivers on its promise to hit back hard and fast while keeping up with the longstanding principle of leaving no one behind. Though the Israeli side has not talked about the number of hostages, Hamas senior official Moussa Abu Marzouk was quoted saying by The Times of Israel that the terror group was holding over 100 Israeli hostages.

No Easy Choices

“We don’t know where Israelis are sheltered,” said Yaakov Amidror, a former national security adviser to Netanyahu, according to the Israeli newspaper. “So the army would have to bomb everything.” Hamas already has said it seeks the release of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in exchange for Israeli captives.

“The cruel reality is Hamas took hostages as an insurance policy against Israeli retaliatory action, particularly a massive ground attack and to trade for Palestinian prisoners,” said Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Will it constrain how Israel responds? If the numbers are great, how could it not?” he was quoted as saying by Reuters.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it would act to free the hostages, seriously damage Hamas’s “terrorist infrastructure” and ensure no terrorist group in Gaza could harm Israeli citizens again. However, experts believe that there are no easy choices. Attempting to rescue all individuals held in several locations might put their lives at risk. But engaging in extended negotiations with Hamas for a prisoner exchange would represent a significant win for a longstanding adversary of Israel.

Painful Memories

In 2011, Israel swapped hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to win the release of one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was held for five years. That kind of exchange looks like a tough bargain when dozens of people may be held this time, which includes soldiers, elderly people, women and children.

For Netanyahu, securing the freedom of hostages comes with painful personal memories. In 1976, his older brother was killed rescuing hostages at Entebbe airport in Uganda, an action the younger Netanyahu said shaped his future life. In that operation, Israeli military officer Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu led an assault team of 29 commandos who stormed the airport terminal to rescue Israelis and others from an Air France flight that had been diverted to Uganda by Palestinian and German hijackers.

In an earlier incident in 1972, Israeli Olympic team members were taken hostage at the athletes’ village in Munich by Palestinian gunmen from the Black September group. Within 24 hours, 11 Israelis, five Palestinians and a German policeman were dead after a rescue effort erupted into gunfire. Israel responded by sending agents to kill the men it considered masterminded the attack, in an alleged covert operation that lasted years.

(With agency input)