Hamas' most important pledge: Israeli soldiers as hostages

War in the Middle East - Hamas' most important pledge: Israeli soldiers as hostages

Hamas has released 105 hostages during the week-long ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. However, the radical Islamic organization is still holding the biggest pledge: the Israeli soldiers it abducted. In the past, Israel has been prepared to make far-reaching concessions in order to get captured military personnel back - even if they were already dead.

"There is an almost inseparable link and great moral and emotional closeness between Israeli civil society, the state and the army," says David Khalfa, one of the directors of the Jean Jaurès Foundation's North Africa and Middle East Observatory in Paris. "The army played a crucial role in the creation of the state, the protection of its territory and the survival of the country in a hostile environment. Every family has a brother, sister or cousin who serves in the military."

According to Israeli figures, at least eleven military personnel, four of them women, and around 40 men of reservist age were among the 240 people kidnapped by Hamas fighters during their attack on Israel, according to the AFP news agency. The Israeli army does not give any figures.

Masterminds of the Hamas massacre exchanged for Israeli soldiers

The soldiers held hostage bring back painful memories in Israel: in 2004, the government released almost 450 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the bodies of three soldiers and an Israeli businessman. The soldier Gilad Shalit was held by Hamas for five years before he was exchanged for 1,027 Palestinians in 2011. It was the first time in almost three decades that a captured Israeli soldier was returned alive.

To this day, there is debate in Israel as to whether this high price was justified - especially as one of those released in 2011 was the later Hamas leader Jahja Sinwar. Sinwar is considered the mastermind behind Hamas' brutal attack on Israel on October 7, in which the Palestinian fighters killed around 1,200 people, according to Israeli figures. In response, Israel massively attacked targets in the Gaza Strip from the air and on the ground for weeks. According to Hamas, more than 15,000 Palestinians were killed. The number of victims cannot be independently verified.

Hamas is aware of the importance of the abducted soldiers for Israel. For them, every adult male among the hostages is a reservist, i.e. a soldier. Hamas and Islamic Jihad - the second radical Islamic organization in the Gaza Strip, which also holds Israelis hostage - are demanding the release of all 7,000 or so Palestinian prisoners in Israel in return for the return of the soldiers and men.

Israel wants to turn over every stone for hostages

During the week-long ceasefire from Friday last week until early Friday morning, Israel released 240 Palestinian prisoners - all of them minors or women. The 80 Israeli hostages released in return as part of an agreement are children and women. 136 hostages, including 17 women and children, are still being held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. According to the latest information from the Israeli army, seven more hostages have been killed.

Avi Melamed, a former Israeli intelligence officer, is certain that "no Israeli government will ever accept" Hamas' demand to exchange all Palestinian prisoners. Unlike in previous cases, however, Israel has "a trump card in its hand this time: its soldiers and tanks", which have entered the Gaza Strip. "Israel will leave no stone unturned to bring back the hostages, the living and the bodies of the deceased," says Melamed. "They will turn over every stone in the Gaza Strip."

The army and the government are not only concerned with the captured soldiers, but also with the bodies of those killed. They are to be buried with military honors in Israel.

In the past, Israel has already made every effort to recover those killed. In 2021, the government assured that it was still searching for the remains of Israeli agent Eli Cohen, who was hanged in Syria in 1965. Hamas is aware of the importance of the bodies of soldiers in Israel. It is still keeping the body of Oron Shaul, who was killed in 2014.