Hamas’s kidnapping of large numbers of civilians has raised dilemmas that Israel has never faced before
For years, the scenario of a mass abduction of civilians by Gazan terrorists kept Israel’s military planners awake at night. Close behind a nuclear-armed Iran was the thought that Hamas would finally succeed in their long-held goal of snatching human bargaining chips.
Israel’s enemies have always known that its sensitivity to casualties was an Achilles heel, but the Gilad Shalit deal in 2011, in which 1,000 terrorists were exchanged for one Israeli soldier, taught Hamas the full extent of Israel’s vulnerability to kidnapping.
That thinking informed the long-running Hamas tunnel-building operation. The tunnels — dug deep into Israel — were intended to facilitate raids whose shock value was second to the big prize: hauling away soldiers and civilians as pawns in the great terror game.
On Shabbos this week those fears became a living, breathing nightmare, as Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists dragged away approximately 150 men, women, and children to captivity in Gaza. In scenes of brutality that demonstrated the deep-seated culture of violence in Palestinian society, terrified and defenseless women and children were paraded through Gaza’s streets as the spoils of a heroic war.
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