The abduction of dozens of Israeli soldiers and civilians, elderly women, children, entire families, by Hamas militants has stirred emotions stronger than any other crisis in the country's recent history and represents a difficult dilemma for the ultra-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The 2006 kidnapping by an Islamist militant group of just one soldier, Gilad Shalit, gripped Israeli society for years and prompted Israel to bomb the Gaza Strip and eventually free more than a thousand Palestinian prisoners, many of whom had been convicted of deadly attacks on Israelis, in exchange for for Shalit's freedom.
This time, Gaza's rulers kidnapped dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers in a shocking attack on Saturday. Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a smaller and more brazen militant group than Hamas, said on Sunday that it alone had taken 30 hostages.
"The cruel reality is that Hamas has taken hostages as insurance against Israeli retaliation, especially a massive ground attack, and to barter for Palestinian prisoners," Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told Reuters.
The AP agency writes that the kidnappings are an additional problem for Netanyahu and his ultra-right allies who are already under intense pressure to respond to the killing of at least 900 Israelis in the Hamas attack so far. Netanyahu's promise of "mighty revenge" against Hamas has raised fears for the safety of Israeli civilians in undisclosed locations across the densely populated Gaza Strip.
"It will limit the directions and areas where the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) can be active," said Michael Milstein, former head of the Palestinian division of Israel's military intelligence service, of the hostage crisis. "It will make the situation much more complicated."
Locating the Israeli hostages in Gaza, which Israeli intelligence agencies failed to do in the Shalit case, presents additional challenges. Although Gaza is small and under constant aerial surveillance and surrounded by Israeli ground and naval forces, the territory, just over an hour from Tel Aviv, remains somewhat obscure to Israeli intelligence agencies.
"We don't know where the Israelis are hiding," said Yakov Amidror, a former national adviser to Netanyahu. "But this whole issue of captured Israelis will not stop Israel from bombing Gaza until Hamas is destroyed."
An estimated 750.000 Palestinians have passed through Israeli prisons since 1967, so most have either been imprisoned in an Israeli prison or know someone who has
Hamas has already said it is seeking the release of Palestinians from Israeli prisons, some 4.500 prisoners, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, in exchange for the release of Israeli prisoners.
An estimated 750.000 Palestinians have passed through Israeli prisons since Israel conquered the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war, so most Palestinians have either been imprisoned in an Israeli prison or know someone who has, AP writes. Israelis consider them terrorists, but Palestinians see the prisoners as heroes. The Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the occupied West Bank, allocates about eight percent of its budget to help them and their families.
"The release of any prisoner would be a big deal for Hamas," said Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestine Center for Policy and Research. "It would strengthen the position of Hamas among Palestinian citizens and further reduce the strength and legitimacy" of the Palestinian Authority.
But Netanyahu's government, with powerful ultra-right religious ministers including West Bank settlers, fiercely opposes any move they see as capitulation to the Palestinians.
There is "absolutely no chance" that the current government will agree to release Palestinian prisoners, said Gajil Talshir, a political scientist at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
"Radicals and extremists in this government want to flatten Gaza," she said.
On Saturday, Netanyahu rejected an offer by opposition leader Yair Lapid to form an emergency government of national unity.
It was a clear sign that Netanyahu "has not given up on his extremist national government," she said.
There is absolutely no way they will agree to release the Palestinian prisoners. Radicals and extremists in this government want to flatten Gaza
To win last year's election while on trial for corruption, Netanyahu relied on the growing popularity of his far-right allies who capitalized on perceptions of threats to Israel's Jewish identity.
Israel's foreign ministry said Israel would act to free the hostages, destroy "terrorist infrastructure" and ensure that no terrorist group in Gaza harms Israeli citizens again.
The powerful finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, one of the leaders of Jewish settlers in the West Bank, demanded at a cabinet meeting late Saturday that the Israeli military "brutally strike at Hamas and not take the issue of prisoners seriously."
"In war, you have to be brutal. We have to strike a blow that has not been seen in 50 years and flatten Gaza," Smotrich reportedly said.
However, the risk of Israeli civilians falling victim to relentless Israeli bombing or languishing in Hamas captivity for years could also be politically disastrous for Netanyahu, AP estimates.
Reuters states that protracted negotiations with Hamas over the exchange of prisoners would be a major victory for Hamas.
"This is a serious dilemma," said Israeli political commentator Ehud Jari. "The fear is that if and when the ground operation begins, Hamas will threaten to kill the hostages every hour, every two hours, and it will become a really heated debate."
Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Center says negotiations are the only solution.
"No matter what pain it inflicts on the Palestinians, in terms of bombing buildings or killing its leaders in Gaza, it will not lessen the pain that Hamas has inflicted on Israel," he told Reuters.
Reuters reports that Netanyahu has shown little desire for ground campaigns in his long career and that Gaza would be complicated to wage war with more than two million people crammed into a narrow strip.
The analysis says that he could use the more familiar strategy of assassinating Hamas leaders with airstrikes and bombs. Israelis killed Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the spiritual leader of Hamas, in a helicopter rocket attack in 2004. But such strikes have not disrupted Hamas.
The AP points out that Israel's turbulent history has revealed the extreme sensitivity of public opinion when it comes to hostages and what a powerful weapon a kidnapping can be in a country where 18-year-olds are conscripted for military service and the army prides itself on never abandoning its own.
"If we allow people to be taken away like this, we have no country, no government, no army," said 58-year-old Tali Levi in the southern city of Ashdod near the Gaza border. Several of her friends are missing.
The families of the Israelis missing after Saturday's attack by Hamas held a press conference Sunday night that was broadcast live in prime time. Shocked relatives, some of them holding back tears or crying, called on the government to return the prisoners home.
In the past, kidnapping cases have sparked massive public pressure campaigns, prompting governments to agree to disproportionate exchanges. Such was the settlement in the Shalit case in 2011, and when Israel released 1.150 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for three Israeli prisoners in 1985.
While military analysts are divided on how Netanyahu should resolve his dilemma, Israelis whose loved ones have been kidnapped have a clear answer.
"I want them to do everything possible, to put aside politics and the whole situation," Adva Adar, whose 85-year-old mother, Jaffa, was abducted and taken across the border into Gaza on a golf cart full of gunmen, told the AP.
"She doesn't have much time left without medication and is suffering a lot," said Adar.
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