2023-10-10 21:05:41
Hamas has reportedly held nearly 150 hostages since its surprise attack on Israel. An unprecedented situation for the Jewish State, which nevertheless seems determined to carry out a vast ground offensive in the Gaza Strip, despite the risks involved, according to experts interviewed by Radio-Canada.
Israel has promised terrible revenge after the bloodiest attack in its history, which was carried out last Saturday by Hamas and which left more than 900 dead.
Since then, the Israeli army has begun shelling the Gaza Strip, carrying out airstrikes of rare intensity in which 830 Palestinians have died.
With the mobilization of more than 360,000 reservists, several experts indicate that Israel appears to be preparing to carry out a vast ground operation to destroy Hamas’ military capabilities. An operation which risks being complicated by the presence, in this small, densely populated territory, of nearly 150 military and civilian hostages, including children, women and the elderly.
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Montrealer Alexandre Look was visiting Israel when he was killed by Hamas fighters.
Photo : Facebook / Alain Haim Look
Several foreigners and dual nationals are also among these hostages, including Americans, Germans, Argentines, French and Canadians. Many of them were kidnapped while participating in a music festival in a field not far from the Gaza Strip. The bodies of nearly 250 people, including a Montrealer, were found not far from the site of this festival, in the middle of a desert.
In a statement, Abou Obeida, spokesperson for Hamas’ military wing, claimed to have hidden dozens of hostages in safe places and tunnels in the Gaza Strip. He also threatened to execute a hostage for each unannounced strike against homes in Gaza.
Israel has faced hostage-taking situations since its founding, but there has never been a case like this, Raphael S. Cohen of the RAND Research Center, which advises the American army in terms of defense strategy.
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Franco-Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit with former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, at the Élysée, a few months after his release by Hamas in February 2012.
He recalls that in 1976, Israeli commandos stormed the airport in Entebbe, Uganda, to free more than 100 Israelis held hostage by Palestinian hijackers.
In 2011, Israel agreed to release more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Hamas’ release of Franco-Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, detained in the Gaza Strip since 2006.
I don’t think such a scenario will happen again today given the scale of the brutality of the Hamas attack, said Mr. Cohen, asserting that public opinion in Israel is not inclined to negotiate at this stage.
According to this Middle East security specialist, the presence of hostages in the Gaza Strip risks complicating any large-scale intervention by the Israeli army in this territory, but this will not limit its response, adds this former lieutenant -Colonel of the US Army.
I don’t think the 150 hostages are going to stop Israel from carrying out a ground operation in the Gaza Strip. On the contrary, I think it will even encourage this scenario.
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Palestinian citizens evacuate their homes damaged by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City.
Photo : Getty Images / Ahmad Hasaballah
Jérôme Pellistrandi, general of the French army and editor-in-chief of the magazine National Defense, is of the same opinion. According to him, Israel will take the time necessary to free its hostages, it could take from a few days to a few weeks, or even years.
At the microphone of the show All one morningMr. Pellistrandi however conceded that the main difficulty for the Israeli army will be to avoid civilian losses during a possible ground operation in the Gaza Strip, but, he adds, the desire for reprisals in Israel is greater than the risks involved.
The humiliation was too great for the Israeli army. She cannot remain indifferent to what happened and I think there will be ground operations for the release of the hostages.
This is what Myriam Azogui-Halbwax, a Canadian-Israeli who left Montreal seven years ago to settle in Israel, not far from Tel Aviv, in the center of the country, wishes. Director of missions of the Advisory Center for Jewish and Israeli Relations (CIJA) in Israel, she affirms that the entire Israeli population today, even the most pacifist activist, is only looking for that: to go to Gaza to free the hostages.
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Police officers evacuate a woman and a child from a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, last Saturday.
Photo : Associated Press / Tsafrir Abayov
It’s not even a story of revenge, it’s a story of humanity, adds this mother of three girls. It’s abominable, I can’t imagine the fear the families feel […] and I can’t believe my country wouldn’t go and get them back.
However, she says she is very distressed about the situation and says she fears a widening of the conflict, particularly in northern Israel, with Lebanon.
His 19-year-old daughter has been serving in the Israeli army in the West Bank for a year, but she risks being deployed to the north or even to the Gaza Strip.
It’s dangerous everywhere, that’s for sure, but entering Gaza is still entering enemy territory, they are small alleys, it’s super dense, says Ms. Azogui-Halbwax. As a woman, I am quite proud of my daughter, but right now, I am extremely anxious.
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