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Published October 19, 2023, 5:12 p.m. ET
A military operation to rescue the hostages held by Hamas terrorists seems all but impossible. Experts warn that diplomacy should now be the focus as the Israeli military announced that the number of abductees had risen to over 200.
Twelve days after Hamas invaded Israel in a surprise terror attack, Jewish state officials estimated that 203 people had been taken hostage by the terror group – an increase from the previous number of suspected abductees.
Given the large number of innocent prisoners – including children, women and the elderly from around 40 different nations – hostage negotiation experts fear that a military release is out of the question and are now calling on the US and Qatar to facilitate a more strategic solution.
“We have not seen a case like this in modern times,” Christopher O’Leary, a former senior FBI official who led many hostage recovery teams, told The Post.
“Israel should prioritize negotiating the release of the hostages while working to gather more intelligence,” he continued.
“The airstrikes may result in more buildings being destroyed, which will make it difficult to operate in Gaza and locate the hostages.” There is also a risk that the hostages could be injured or killed as a result.”
Hamas has released a video showing nine terrorists holding a toddler believed to be one of the 203 hostages taken from Israel. Hamas online The whereabouts and condition of the hostages remain unknown as walls in Tel Aviv display the faces of the missing. Getty Images
Qatar, a country that facilitates aid to Gaza, is currently acting as an intermediary between the terrorist organization and US officials. At least 13 Americans are among the hostages.
O’Leary noted that Qatar is a valuable ally that has helped deal with hostage situations in Afghanistan and Iran.
But while nations urged Israel to hold back in its counterattack, the Jewish state continued its airstrikes in Gaza.
Hamas officials have claimed that at least 22 hostages were killed in the attacks, a statistic that Israel has dismissed as mere psychological warfare.
It has been confirmed that Omer Neutra, a New York native, was kidnapped by Hamas while serving in the IDF. Facebook / Midway Jewish Center A photo of Israeli grandmother Yaffa Adar was published online after she was taken by Hamas.Family Handout
Gershon Baskin, who negotiated the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011, is among those who believe Israel’s bombings are increasingly damaging the security of hostages.
“Sacrificing hostages and soldiers seems to be the psychology these days,” Baskin told The New York Times about the airstrikes and the planned ground invasion to destroy Hamas.
“Nobody thinks about the day after: What are you doing with Gaza?”
The hostages’ whereabouts remain unknown, but Israeli military officials said they had received information about the prisoners’ whereabouts.
Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, claimed on Telegram that dozens of hostages were in “safe locations and in the resistance tunnels,” referring to the extensive underground tunnel network beneath Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon has deployed a small team of special forces to help Israel search and rescue the hostages.
Hamas soldiers are sharing photos of the hostages in humane situations to avoid world condemnation, experts said. Hamas online A friend of the kidnapped Israeli student Noa Argamani pleaded for her safe release. AFP via Getty Images
“The President has directed his team to work with their Israeli counterparts on all aspects of the hostage crisis, including sharing intelligence and deploying experts from across the U.S. government to consult with and assist Israeli counterparts on hostage recovery efforts “advise,” NSC spokesman John Kirby told reporters last week.
Then on Monday, Hamas released a video of Mia Schem, 21, a French-Israeli citizen who appeared to be receiving medical treatment for an arm injury as she revealed she was in Gaza after leaving the Nova music festival on October 7 had been kidnapped.
“They take care of me, give me medicine, everything is fine. I just ask that they take me home to my parents and siblings as soon as possible,” she said. “Get me out of here as quickly as possible. Please.”
Mia Schem was seen in a Hamas video pleading for her safe return while claiming she was being cared for by the terror group.
A senior Western official with knowledge of negotiations with Hamas told the Times that the terror group did not order its gunmen to kidnap women and children, but instead blamed it on common criminals.
However, “top secret” documents recovered from the bodies of Hamas militants by Israeli first responders and viewed by NBC News indicate that the terrorists were ordered by their leaders to kidnap civilians.
In one plan, two highly trained Hamas units were ordered to surround and infiltrate the kibbutz of Kfar Sa’ad and work together to imprison as many unsuspecting Israelis as possible, according to the documents written in Arabic.
One unit would work to “contain the new Da’at school,” while the second group would “collect hostages,” “search the Bnei Akiva Youth Center,” and “search the old Da’at school.”
Still, O’Leary noted that Hamas was not in complete control of Gaza, adding that other Islamist extremist groups and civilians were also involved in the kidnappings. Hamas claims that at least 50 people are being held by the other factions.
On a wall in Tel Aviv were the faces of those believed to have been kidnapped, including citizens from around 40 different nations. AFP via Getty Images
“These other groups have historically been more extreme than Hamas, so we don’t know under what conditions they are being held,” O’Leary said.
The unnamed Western official who spoke to the Times suggested that for this reason Hamas was well aware of the global condemnation of the kidnappings – which was the reason for the sudden urge to portray itself as one take care of the hostages and even free some of them.
Ari Yonatan, an Israeli medic who witnessed firsthand the horrors of the Hamas attack on October 7, told the Post he agreed that the terrorists were now using the hostages for propaganda and negotiating tactics.
“Perhaps they chose farmers to keep them alive or in a reasonably stable condition to create a bargaining chip for negotiations or a prisoner exchange,” he said. “It is a very complicated topic.
Hersh Golberg-Polin’s mother pleaded for her son’s rescue after learning his arm had been shot off and taken hostage by Hamas. Portal
“I’m actually hoping for the best as far as their condition is concerned,” Yonatan said of the hostages. “But I imagine the worst… They could do anything to them.”
Immediately after the October 7 terrorist attack, Saleh al-Arouri, deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau, claimed that his group had captured enough people to enable the release of all Palestinians held captive by Israel.
According to the latest figures from Addameer, a prisoners’ rights nonprofit, there are nearly 5,200 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, including 33 women and 170 minors.
It is unclear whether Hamas has proposed such an exchange in recent days.
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