Why Hamas took so many people hostage — and how that complicates Israel's response
CBC
Adva Adar received a horrifying text from her grandmother at around 9 a.m. local time Saturday, saying there was shooting and shouting on the road in her community, just kilometres away from Israel's border with Gaza.
It was the last Adar and other family members heard from 85-year-old Yaffa Adar.
Hours later, an Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) member checked Yaffa Adar's house in Kibbutz Kfar Aza and found it "completely broken," Adva Adar said.
The family's worst fears were confirmed when, after scouring social media, they found a video of Yaffa Adar wrapped in a blanket and being driven in a golf cart carrying Palestinian men. She appears calm, even though one of her captors is carrying a machine gun.
"She's [a] strong lady," Adva Adar told Reuters at her home in the town of Luzit, more than 50 kilometres away from Kibbutz Kfar Aza. "You can see there, she's sitting trying to show them she's not afraid and she's not hurt. And, you know, if they will take her, they will take her with her pride. And that's the kind of woman my grandmother was."
Armed fighters with the Palestinian militant group Hamas captured more than 100 soldiers and civilians — including women, children and senior citizens — during a surprise assault and incursion into Israeli territory on Saturday morning, and is holding them hostage inside the Gaza Strip.
It's unclear whether or not the Israeli government will agree to exchange any of its Palestinian prisoners and detainees — which also include women and children — for the release of hostages.
The capture of so many people from inside Israel is not only unprecedented but it may complicate the Israeli military assault against Hamas inside the densely populated enclave.
"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, in an interview with Reuters.
"Will it constrain how Israel responds? If the [hostage] numbers are great, how could it not?"
Hamas, which governs Gaza, and another Palestinian militant group called Islamic Jihad claim to be holding more than 130 hostages.
Citizens from multiple countries are among the missing following Saturday's attacks and are possibly being held hostage in Gaza as well. Global Affairs Canada says at least three Canadians are missing, but would not confirm if they are believed to be hostages.
The hostages may serve as a "kind of human leverage" for the militants, Robin Wright, a foreign policy analyst and fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., explained in an interview with CBC News Network.
That makes the situation "difficult militarily [and] makes it difficult diplomatically," she said.