Hamas Spurns Safe Passage Offer

"I'm ready to provide safe passage to Sinwar, his family, whoever wants to join  him."

"We want the hostages back. We want demilitarization, de-radicalization of course -- a new system that will manage Gaza."

"In parallel, I must work on plan B, C and D because we must bring the hostages back home. The clock is ticking, the hostages do not have time."

"There will be a price for these murders [hostage deaths]."

Gal Hirsch, Israel's hostage envoy

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was one of the masterminds of the October 7 attacks and is thought to be living in a network of tunnels under Gaza. AFP

 

"I see how the Saudis and other moderate Arab states, including potentially Indonesia and others, are waiting to have a window of opportunity to enter and expand the Abraham Accords -- we bless it."

"It's in our best interest, it's in their best interest, it's in America's best interest to align with the moderate Arab states."

Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat

In exchange for freeing the hostages held by Hamas, and surrendering control of the Gaza Strip, Israel has proposed to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar a guaranteed safe passage out of Gaza. This, as the ongoing attempts at a ceasefire accord have accomplished nothing; Hamas may be on its back foot as a consequence of its attack on southern Israel's farming communities on October 7 but it still feels entitled to control all the points of any agreement with Israel for a ceasefire, prepared to negotiate no concessions beyond its own demands.

In response to which Israel's chief envoy representing the Jewish state's commitment to rescuing its citizens from the talons of the terrorists who succeeded in that facet of their orders beyond committing mass rape, plunder, destruction and the bloodlust of savage mass murders, to round up and abduct some 250 Israeli children, elderly, entire families and IDF soldiers to be used as bait and exchange for Palestinian criminals and terrorists in Israeli prisons.

The offer of safe passage for the mastermind of the sadistic terrorism that rocked Israel eleven months ago leading to the Israeli military's invasion of Gaza for the stated purpose of obliterating the threat of any further Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israel, has had an expected response. It was turned down. Perhaps it occurs to Sinwar and his close colleagues that the offer has a limited guarantee; once safely out of Gaza, they will be hunted and the accountability they bear for the unspeakable massacre of Jews number the days of their existence.

They shouldn't mind that, however, since their boast of loving, not fearing death, as a heroic sacrifice to their 'cause' and to Islam glorifies martyrdom, as an achievement by the faithful to the greater glory of Islam demonstrating the proud heritage of self-destruction while in the process of committing mass murder of an 'enemy' and none so aptly earn that description as do Jews, perfidious and dangerous to Islam, whom the faithful aspire to destroy in honour of their Prophet who invited Jewish tribes to convert only to be shunned and refused.

 

Six Israeli captives were found dead at the end of August, re-energizing the protest movement calling for a hostage deal  The National

 

Although the hostage envoy made the offer of safe passage it has a limited life. Gal Hirsch knows with whom he is dealing, a fanatic mind so steeped in Jew-hate he could only be compared to Hitler, for each of them devised a 'final solution' for Jews. Safe passage aside, once a temporary agreement had been accomplished, Hirsch envisions a "Munich-type response" targeting those who executed six Israeli hostages last month; alluding to the assassination of those involved in the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes in 1972 at the Munich Olympics.

Previously, Prime Minister Netanyahu had stated that the solution of exile "is there, we have always discussed it, but I think the most important thing is that they surrender. If they lay down their arms, the war is over".

Details emerged of the captivity conditions of the six executed hostages, of the tunnel in which they were imprisoned; a space some100 yards in length and five feet in height. "Very humid and hard to breathe in", described Israel Defense spokesman Daniel Hagari. A makeshift toilet was discovered alongside bottles of urine, mattresses, energy bars and tuna fish tins where the hostages had lived in a cramped space for months. Hostages known to have protected each other before they were shot.

Despite the deadly turmoil and ongoing attacks against Israel by Hamas operatives, by Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon, border skirmishes from Jordan and the maritime shipping threats of the Yemeni Houthis, all orchestrated by the Islamic Republic of Iran, Israel remains invested in normalizing diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia and other Arab states, expanding the Abraham Accords when ties were established with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and tentative overtures to others.

Tunnel where six Israeli hostages were found killed seen in this still image taken from a handout video released on September 10, 2024. Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS

"We Are All Suffering"

"I love you and miss you..." [final words of 24-year-old Eden Yerushalmi, one of six Israeli hostages murdered by Hamas in Gaza].  Neither she, nor the other five hostages that were murdered by Hamas operatives just prior to the IDF special forces entering a tunnel in Rafah with the intention of freeing them, will ever send another message to their grieving families. Their deaths resulted in a message to the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that any further attempts to free Israelis from their ravaging captivity will result in further murders.

Hamas released a video of slain hostage Eden Yerushalmi before her death, giving a message directed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (credit: Screenshot/Hamas Telegram)

And the spillover from this carnage, this playing with peoples' fears and anguished hopes of deliverance from hell-on-earth is a raging population that disowns their government committed to the total annihilation of the psychotic evil force that threatens its survival and that of its Jewish population, demanding that the government cease its aspirational destruction of the death-cult that has slaughtered far too many Jews, in favour of suspending the response to Hamas's October 7 atrocities choosing instead to bring the remaining hostages back home to Israel.

A suspension that would meet the Hamas terms of disengagement to allow the terrorist group's pause to refresh; a time when it would rearm, regroup, retain a new influx of eager recruits anxious to prove their capacity to rape, maim, murder en masse in the name of courageous 'resistance' to a military tasked to protect its vulnerable population and secure the state against further deadly intrusions by terrorist mobs of psychopaths steeped in the mad heat of delivering death.

Eden Yerushalmi was at the Nova music festival not far from the Gaza border during the October 7 massacre. As chaos and slaughter broke out, she hid among the bodies of her dead friends, then sought to secure herself in nearby shrubbery. While there she communicated by cellphone with her sister: "Shani, they caught me"; the last words she spoke as she was captured and taken to Gaza, to a dread fate of vicious torture, starvation, fear and human deprivation, her freedom taken, her future uncertain.

 

After almost a year in captivity under inhumane conditions, she was freed from her nightmare. Found shot in the back of the head, in a tunnel under Rafah. Killed by Hamas operatives, with the anticipated near approach of Israeli forces. Shot at close range -- she and the five other young Israelis, all taken hostage on October 7, all from the Nova music festival site --several days before an autopsy revealed their conditions of death.

"We prayed. We wanted to believe this was not true."

"This is not how I imagined your end. I wanted you back alive."

"I apologize that we were not able to save you."

Eden Yerushalmi's mother, at her daughter's funeral

Hamas made videos for all of the six Israeli hostages they murdered. They tutored the hostages in delivering messages for their families. All the while planning to kill them, and through the videos to extract the ultimate pain and grief from bereaved families, and from the horrified Israeli population at large. In effect, telling the Israeli government that there is no hope for appealing to the humanity in people without any.

Haunting video posted on Telegram on Monday shows the six doomed Israeli hostages speaking before their murders. X

 

What They Endured -- From Darkness To Light

"If it means the world will learn the truth about what they did to us, what we endured in captivity -- I'm on board."

"Let's just say he [heir captor] had an issue with us moving around."

"If he caught one of us standing, he'd suddenly declare: 'Oh, you stood up? Fine. Now I want you sitting for a week. If you need the bathroom -- crawl."

"I don't want to see you on your feet."

"We were itching to retaliate, but we suppressed it, detaching ourselves emotionally."

Almog Meir Jan

"But we'd wear him down after about four days. We did our best to comply."

"We'd win him over by playing the role of obedient children."

Shlomi Ziv

"For those who've returned, the most crucial mission now is saving lives."

"They carry the weight of responsibility for those they had to leave behind."

Susie Ozsinay Aranya, co-project lead, Government Press Office

Shlomi Ziv and Almog Meir Jan, Photo Efrat Eshel

 

These are the fortunate unfortunates. Their misfortune was to have been taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on October 7. Their good fortune was to have been among those of the hostages that the Operation Arnon rescue by the IDF released in June, after 246 days of captivity in Gaza. Two of the hostages have agreed to relive the details of their captivity by revealing details seared into their psyches by their experiences at the hands of their Hamas captors.

Their testimony in recounting their ordeal before they were released will form part of a project of documentation for posterity of returned hostages and their families; a project led by Israel's Government Press Office. That same rescue, Operation Arnon, freed other survivors of the Hamas hostage-taking, Andrey Kozlov and Noa Argamani, held separately from Kozlov, Shlomo Ziv and Almog Meir Jan. 

 

The two men described, among other tormenting punishments, what they speak of as 'creative' assaults on human dignity.

 

Families of hostages march into Gaza during the protest on August 29, 2024 (Photo: Hostages and Missing Families Forum)

“I saw Yaya [Yaakov Tal her husband] outside the house, sitting on his knees and two terrorists were holding him by his sides. He was with his back [to] me. They were holding weapons. And he yelled at me, 'I'm going to die!'”

“And I'm on a Vespa and I told him 'Don't resist'. One [of the terrorists] who was sitting [on the Vespa] was holding a knife to my neck. They brought me down from the Vespa, someone hit me on the head. I almost lost consciousness.”

Merav Tal, October 7 hostage

 

“There were shouts of ‘Jew, Jew’ in Arabic. They broke in [to the bomb shelter] screaming and shooting, bullet marks on the door. We understood my husband was shot. He was lying on the floor with his hands up. This was all in front of our eyes.”

“And then I ran to check on Yam [her oldest daughter], and I see that she was shot in the face. I just saw this for a few seconds, it was a shocking sight. Something got opened right here and blood was coming out of her head. Such a convulsion, she was half passed out. I was simply stunned, in shock, I was asking myself: 'Is what I'm seeing right now really happening?'” 

Chen Goldstein-Almog, abducted from Kfar Aza with her three children

In all, 25 former hostages of various ages have agreed to share their personal experiences since their return, to be part of the project. As well, 21 family members of those still in captivity will also add to the record-keeping. An estimated 100 hostages of the 250 taken into Gaza as pawns for future prisoner exchanges, remain in Gaza. Israeli authorities believe that some 70 of those prisoners remain yet alive. Their numbers are diminishing, murdered by their captors.

"Since the Holocaust until October 7, the Jewish people have not experienced such systematic slaughter and murderous acts on such a scale. On Holocaust Memorial Day this year, amid severe antisemitic events worldwide, we will show testimonies of the atrocities committed against women, men, the elderly, and children in captivity in the Gaza Strip to foreign journalists from around the world." 

"Soon, the Public Diplomacy Directorate will release the testimonies of the national project to the media to serve the ongoing campaign against the dehumanization and delegitimization of the State of Israel."

Nitzan Chen, director of the GPO

Even the videoed documented evidence of the Hamas orgy of sadistic savagery in mutilating, raping, burning families alive, hunting down and taking captive young people at the Nova Music Festival, slaughtering hundreds in farming villages close to the Gaza border, has failed to fully convince the international community that Israelis had been forced to undergo a massive atrocity by Palestinian terrorists. Personal witness testimony, along with the incriminating videos have been insufficient to convince an uncaring United Nations and skeptic national leaders of the scale of the horror. 

Rally in Jerusalem marks six months of captivity

(Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

"He's Back With Us, Alive!"

Rescued hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi arrives via IDF helicopter to Soroka Medical center.  (photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

"He told about a very brutal captivity, he hardly saw the sun for eight months. He would check if his eyes were functioning."

"He said that one of the abductees was with him for two months and died next to him."

Ata Abu Medigm, former mayor of Rahat

"[Qaid Farhan Alkadi] lost a lot of weight. [He ate] mainly bread [in captivity and] not every day."

"He is now on his feet and talking about the matter. He was constantly thinking about the family and never stopped believing that he [would get] out of there."

"We don't know how he survived, but he survived and he's alive, and that's the most important thing."

Alkadi relative

Freed Israeli hostage Kaid Alkadi at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva in southern Israel on Aug. 27, 2024. — Israeli Government Press Office

After 326 agonizing days of imprisonment by Hamas operatives in Gaza, 52-year-old Qaid Farhan Alkadi was finally rescued this week by Israeli forces. After hospitalization, his attending doctor in Beersheba declared  him to be abnormally thin from weight loss, but in generally good physical condition. He was released to the waiting arms of his extended family. Prior photographs of the Bedouin Muslim Israeli from Rahat show a robust, well-built man whereas the photos latterly taken after his release from Gaza are those of a gaunt man with a shrunken musculature.

 

Unsurprising, given the circumstances in which he was kept prisoner, with food enough to keep him alive, incarcerated in dimly-lit-to-dark tunnels, where the familiarity of the sun in a normal atmosphere became a dim memory. "He spoke about the darkness, not being able to see. But thank God, he's back with us, alive -- it made us all rejoice", said his cousin Fayez al-Sana after visiting the father of eleven children in hospital before his discharge.

 

"He was dead and is now brought back to life. It was all tears. Tears of Joy. What matters is that we saw him", added Alkadi's brother Juma, who explained that his brother had been shot in the leg when he was abducted from the farming kibbutz on the Gaza border on October 7, where he was employed as a security guard. Later in Gaza, his wound was operated on without the benefit of anesthesia. And that too would be a memorable experience.

 

The brother of freed Israeli hostage Kaid Alkadi shows a mobile phone picture of him with another brother — Menahem KAHANA

 

The nation of Israel cheered at this man's survival and rescue and return to Israel, his family, his town and his Bedouin clan. Many other Israelis are being held in the vast tunnel network that exists under Gaza. His rescue from the tunnel system represents the first time an Israeli was brought out of the tunnels on a rescue mission alive.

It was explained by Israeli authorities that, acting on intelligence, special forces were combing tunnels when Alkadi was discovered alone in a room about 23 metres underground, his guards having been dispersed at the arrival of the Israelis. Led by Shayetet 13 (Israeli counterpart to the U.S. Navy SEALs), it was initially thought that they were confronting a Hamas operative. The team included Yahalom members, a special unit of the combat Engineering Corps.

They had entered the tunnel, determined that Alkadi was alone, called out to him, and he responded: "It's me, Farhan, don't shoot". He was weak and obviously malnourished and in that condition was unable to clamber out of the tunnel on his own. He had been kept in a complex of several tunnels' intersection. When he was found, he was in a side room, leading the Israeli forces to fear that what faced them could represent a Hamas entrapment.

With his rescue, the number of hostages that remain as captive by Hamas is estimated at 108 in Gaza. That number is broken down to represent 104 of the 251 hostages Hamas operatives and civilian Palestinians had originally gathered and taken to Gaza on October 7. Of the total, some 34 are no longer alive, according to the Israeli military assessment.

Qaid Farhan Alkaldi (C), who was held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, is greeted as he returns to the unrecognized Bedouin village of Carcur, near the city of Rahat, after being rescued by Israeli forces from a tunnel in southern Gaza, on Aug. 28, 2024, in Rahat, Israel. — Amir Levy/Getty Images

"The assessment in Israel is that, at least in some cases, Hamas lost contact with the abductees and ... is now trying to understand what happened to them."

Israeli Channel 12 report

Toronto Rally for Israeli Hostages

"On October 7, at the Nova Festival, in the kibbutz [Hamas] was raping, mutilating and destroying the souls and bodies of women, elderly and men and they're still doing that."

"It's not a one-time rape or a one-time lesson. It's happening now, as we speak."

"The [hostages] that have returned, they tell their stories of the women that are still left behind and people are still not willing to accept it ... People are walking like horses [with blinders on ...]."

"They prefer to close their eyes and continue to be bystanders without understanding that it's happening now."

Maayan Shavit, Toronto rally for Israeli hostages

Carmel Gat was taken captive by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023 from her parents' home in Kibbutz Be'eri (Courtesy)

 

This is 39-year-old Carmel Gat's cousin speaking to a crowd of onlookers and supporters. She was captured by Hamas terrorists running rampant through the kibbutz where her parents and other family members lived, in southern Israel. An occupation therapist by vocation and by avocation a yoga practitioner from Tel Aviv, she happened to be close by the border with Gaza when the Hamas attack took place. Her mother was murdered and she was kidnapped.

While her brother and her niece escaped, her sister-in-law was taken, among other hostages. When a pause in fighting took place after prisoner-exchange negotiations in November, her sister-in-law was released, among other women and children and the elderly. Among the released hostages were a number who had interacted with the missing Carmel Gat. They related that she is being held among children held as hostages. She used  her skills in yoga to teach them to practise it daily, in an effort to calm their spirits.

 

Naama Levy was taken hostage by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023. (Courtesy)

 

At the Toronto rally there were fourteen women, each representing those 14 Israeli women remaining in captivity, held by Hamas. Canadians for Israel who had arranged the rally orchestrated the fourteen women in a tableau resembling in part the situation of the Israeli hostages. Each of the fourteen simulated the hostages' condition; their hands bound, a cloth mouth-gag and bloodied sweatpants reflecting the horrors seen in a video that showed 19-year-old Naama Levy, bound, gagged, bloodied sweatpants ushered into a vehicle by a Hamas terrorist.

 

Naama Levy, seen in a video shortly after she was taken hostage to Gaza on October 7, 2023. (Screen grab/X)

Heart-shaped cards with pictures of a hostage on one side, and on the reverse the message: "Our hearts are broken, read their stories", were handed out to onlookers and passersby. "Bring them home NOW!" completed the message. There is a QR code detailing all the hostages remaining in Hamas' custody, linked to a Times of Israel article. Stapled to the back of the card another QR code links to a document with contact information for Members of Parliament from the Toronto Area as well as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Foreign Minister Melanie Joly and Minister of Women, Marci Ien.

"The only thing that is going to help is if people call out, speak to their government officials, and at the government level, urge them to speak out."

"Because they have to pressure the international community and they have to say to Hamas, 'Release the hostages'."

"We don't hear [them] doing enough on any level, anything that we've heard from the Canadian government feels like lip service, it feels like a minimum to fulfill some basic requirement."

Daphna Pollak, Toronto Rally for Israel organizer

Israelis demand all of the hostages taken to Gaza be released. 60 Minutes

Surviving The Unthinkable

"It [her captivity] reminded me of the Holocaust. I thought I was going crazy."

"I was really afraid, and without barely any light or food I felt that I was going crazy."

"I said if Anne Frank could write, why couldn't I."

"I said to myself, 'Where are our planes? When I heard them [overhead], I was very happy, and was not afraid."

"After being held alone for so long, I was back with my family."

Ofelia Roitman, 77, former Hamas hostage

Ofelia Roitman, 77, was taken captive from her Kibbutz Nir Oz home on October 7, 2023, after Hamas terrorists attacked the community. She was freed on November 28, 2023. (Courtesy)

The grandmother of nine was recounting her experience as an Israeli hostage taken into captivity by Hamas terrorists in their orgy of slaughter, rape, mass murder and abduction on October 7. Her home was in Kibbutz Nir Oz, and on that morning the former educator had taken shelter in her safe room following siren warnings of incoming rockets from the Gaza Strip. She was alone in her home, her husband was recuperating in hospital from a recent surgery.

She called her daughter Natalie Madmon at 9:37 that morning with the message: "They are here, please, please!" The safe room's steel door was sprayed with bullets, one of which hit her arm. She was now a prisoner, as an elderly civilian Israeli, of terrorists. One of the attackers thoughtfully used a shoelace as a tourniquet to wrap her arm. And then she was thrown face down in a tractor for the drive back to Gaza with her captors. 

 

When Israeli soldiers arrived there were no signs of a struggle, and days later notification was forwarded to her family that she was a hostage in Gaza.

When Ofelia Roitman arrived in Gaza with her captors she was taken to a tunnel, and there a female Palestinian medic refused to tend to her wound. In English, she said "I don't treat Jews". She was overruled by the man who had taken charge of Roitman, insisting she be given basic medical attention, and then placed in a wheelchair, she was wheeled through the streets for a 20 minute trip to an apartment. There she would be held for the following 46 days.

From there her injuries were treated by a doctor periodically who was dressed in full burqa covering with an eye slit. She was warned not to say a word to anyone. When her captors wanted her family phone numbers she responded they were in her cellphone back at her house. For the following month and a half she was unaware whether it was night or day. Both light and food withheld, but for the very basic, to keep her alive.

Her days seemed endless, and gnawing hunger beset her, as she paced around in circles. Given a pita with za'atar daily, she would tear it into pieces and eat it through the day. She was given dry rice at night. "The food issue for me was like in the Holocaust", she said, on her eventual release. Noticing a pen and notebook she asked for permission to write in it, and after that, the next 53 days had her keeping a diary where, as an Argentinian-born, she wrote in Spanish.

Under the building where she was kept captive, tunnels stretched beneath, from where Hamas fighters would fire rockets at Israel and when a projectile was fired, the building shook. She heard crowds outside the building erupt into celebratory calls any time a missile reached Tel Aviv or Beersheva. On day 47 of her captivity, Ofelia Roitman was taken to a hospital, and there was reunited with two of her kibbutz neighbours.

The following day the three neighbours were delivered to the care of the Red Cross, and from there,  they were returned to Israel. Her nephew in Buenos Aeries, a popular sports broadcaster, began each game's broadcast during her captivity with a public reminder of his aunt's abduction along with other Israeli captives. In Argentina she became known as "Aunt Ofelia". 

Her kibbutz and home destroyed, she lives now in  an Israeli retirement centre, with her husband.

Palestinian terrorists transport a captured Israeli civilian, Adina Moshe, from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz to be held as a hostage in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023. (AP Photo)

Redeem the Hostages -- Encourage More Hostage-Taking: Israel's Dilemma on its Mission to Destroy Hamas

"The objective is for this war to end very differently from all of the previous rounds. There has to be a clear victory."

"[Weakening Hamas was not enough] whatever has to be done to fundamentally change the situation will have to be done." 

Chuck Freilich, former deputy national security adviser, Israel

"We don't know the exact number [of hostages now held by Hamas] and we are still checking."

"Definitely I cannot say how much we will factor in the fact that we have maybe an unprecedented number of hostages in Gaza ... But it's not going to stop us, prevent us, from doing what we need to do in order to secure the future of Israel."

"Of course we want to see all of our boys, girls, grandmothers, everyone who was abducted, we want to see them back home."

"But right now, our focus ... is to obliterate Hamas terrorist capabilities."

Gilad Erdan, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations

Israeli hostages taken by Hamas (Screenshot)

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad after storming into Israel Saturday morning, slaughtering hundreds of residents in their homes and streets in towns near the Gaza border, are now holding captive roughly 150 Israeli soldiers and civilians. Mobilization of Israeli reservists swiftly was expanded to 360,000 in response to the unprecedented invasion by Palestinian terrorists. It took days of offensive/defensive conflict but by Tuesday Israel's military had regained control over those areas that Hamas attacked in Israel's south.

 

Now the question on observers' minds is whether Israel will launch a ground assault into Gaza, governed by Hamas since 2007. A large portion of Gaza City's Rimal neighbourhood, the elite section of the city, was reduced on Tuesday to rubble by warplanes from Israel bombarding the area the night before. Hundreds of targets were struck in upscale Rimal, home to ministries of the Hamas government, including universities, media organizations and offices of aid agencies.

 

After warning civilians to evacuate targeted neighbourhoods, Israel launched their devastating attacks. Residents of nearby al-Daraj were told to evacuate and new explosions rocked the area soon afterward as well as in Rimal. Fishing boats were sent aflame when one strike hit the seaport of Gaza City. That same day Hamas fired barrages of rockets toward Ashkelon and Tel Aviv; no casualties were reported.

 

An emergency personnel works to extinguish a fire after rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from the city of Ashkelon, Israel, October 7, 2023.(Amir Cohen/Reuters)

In Israel-Hamas conflicts between 2008 and 2021, four rounds were ended inconclusively, Hamas battered but still in control of Gaza. There is now intense pressure after the barbarously grotesque nature of this latest deadly infiltration of Israel with horrible carnage on a wider scale than could ever be imagined, for Hamas and its partners in jihad against Israel to be permanently removed as an ongoing on-again, off-again lethal threat to Jews in Israel. 

 

Palestinian Islamic Jihad is thought to be holding over 30 people as hostages. Hamas has the distinction of holding the greater number as bargaining chips where in past exchanges, a single Israeli hostage could be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinians  held in Israeli prisons for capital crimes. Authorities in Israel have not been publicly forthcoming about the hostages, leaving people searching for their family members turning to social media and local volunteer networks to appeal for information on their whereabouts. 

 

Aerial footage of charred and bullet-riddled cars at the site of Supernova Music Festival in Israel, where at least 260 people were killed by Hamas. Photo: South First Responders via AP

Contact has been made with families of 50 Israeli hostages to bring them updated information of the situation, by the Israel Defense Forces. The search for the hostages is complex; the Gaza Strip encompasses 140 square miles of territory and the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigade has claimed to have 'relocated' Israeli soldiers and officers, keeping them "safeguarded in safe locations and in the resistance's tunnels". The tunnels infiltrate Israel underground and stretch throughout the breadth and depth of the Gaza Strip including beneath its cities.

"A vast underground city with dozens of access points located throughout Gaza", is how Israel describes the tunnels. Those people whom Hamas captured and held within Israel itself as fighting was underway around the border towns were eventually rescued by Israeli troops. Now, Hamas threatens to execute hostages should Israeli forces target Gaza residents. As though Hamas terrorists had been reluctant to slaughter Israelis during their incursion. Hamas issuing instructions to Israel on how to proceed, characterizing its defence as 'aggression'.

In this image from video obtained by the AP, Avinatan Or, second left, and his partner Noa Argamani, not pictured, are seized by Hamas during an attack on an Israeli music festival on Saturday, Oct. 7. Photo by AP Photo

"From this moment on, we announce that every targeting of our people who are safe in their houses, without prior warning, we will regrettably meet with the execution of one of the enemy's civilian hostages that we have. And we will have to broadcast that audio and visually."

"We will not exchange or negotiate on the file of the hostages while under fire, during aggression and battle."

"The hostage situation is a strategic file that has its own clear and known path, and its price will be paid by the occupation, there is no question about it."

Abu Obaida, Hamas spokesperson

The Hamas wildly successful operation from any point of view, theirs or Israel's, has left a dilemma. The terrorists who killed at random as many people as they could surprise, who mutilated and tortured men and women, who murdered entire families, who burned people alive in their homes, who slit throats and killed infants and babies, beheading some, incinerating others, think they have an ace of control in the number of hostages they've taken, abused, raped, threatened. Including infants they've placed in cages.

Israeli authorities are left with extremely difficult decisions to make. Carefully choosing what manner of response will ultimately achieve the purpose of destroying the threat that Palestinian jihadist terror continues to pose to Israel and its population. The safety of hostages has always been uppermost of mind and intention. Rescuing them will be beyond difficult should Hamas distribute them across the Gaza Strip for them to be positioned as a deterrence to Israeli strikes.

The question is, will the decision be forced upon Israel to finally abandon its pledge to first and foremost sacrifice everything in the interests of returning their own to safety in Israel from the hands of its enemies...In the now greater interests of preserving Israel's safety under the threat of an increasingly better-armed terrorist threat becoming increasingly emboldened. Deciding finally, and once and for all, to embark on a no-holds-barred extermination of that threat, allowing the inevitable, the abandonment of the hostages.