Israel Faces Hostage Dilemma as Military Operation in Gaza Progresses

'In the military profession, urban warfare is considered the toughest for the attacker and this is complicated even further with the presence of tunnels'

For 34 days, more than 240 people have been held captive by the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza. Most of them are Israelis, some hold dual citizenship. Some are Israeli soldiers; others are foreigners who came to southern Israel to work in agriculture in communities on the border with the Gaza Strip. Among those abducted are approximately 30 children and many elderly people, some sick with life-threatening conditions.

The Trufanov family was hard-hit on Oct. 7. Four members of the family were abducted to Gaza and the father of the family was killed as terrorists rampaged the Nir Oz Kibbutz. Sasha Trufanov and his partner Sapir, his grandmother Irena, and mother Yelena have been held hostage since then.

An entire family vanished, uprooted from their home.

Yelena appeared briefly in a Hamas-released video with two other Israeli hostages in which she did not speak.

Volunteers have taken up the task of representing the Trufanovs, who have no family left in Israel, in a campaign aimed at pressuring the Israeli government to secure their release.

“The only way this family will have continuity is if we bring them back from Gaza,” said Gali Haskell, who has volunteered to promote their cause. “We will do anything and everything we can to bring them back.”

For Gil Dickmann, the hours and days after his cousin Carmel and his other cousin’s wife Yarden were taken from their home in Kibbutz Be’eri have been excruciating. Yarden was taken together with her husband and their 3-year-old daughter. Although the three managed to escape from their captors, Yarden realized she would not be able to run far from them as she was barefoot. She handed her daughter to her husband and was then taken back to captivity, crossing the border in a stolen car packed with Hamas terrorists.

“Our biggest fear is what is being done to these women in the hands of Hamas,” Dickmann told The Media Line.

Carmel Gat. (Courtesy of family)

The day of their abduction was the day of Hamas’ surprise offensive in Israel which resulted in the massacre of 1,400 Israelis, most of them civilians. In response, Israel launched an operation on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, vowing to topple the regime. The operation by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has also become a hostage rescue mission. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to bring all the Israelis home and in recent days has refused calls for a cease-fire in the fighting in order to facilitate a hostage release deal.

Yarden Gat. (Courtesy of family)

The Israeli military’s response first began with a massive aerial campaign against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. As the operation against Hamas advanced, it launched a ground incursion into the territory two weeks ago.

“That night, when the ground forces entered Gaza, all of the families started to panic with no ability to sleep at night,” said Dickmann. “There was a deep fear that, right now, as the army attacks, this operation puts the lives of our loved ones in danger. And no one reassured us that maybe this would somehow help to release the hostages.”

In addition to operating against Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations, the Israeli military also is believed to be using intelligence sources on the ground to try to locate and free hostages. So far, there has been one successful attempt in which one Israeli soldier was released by special forces.

I have no way of knowing if such an operation can really help release the hostages, but we are doing everything in order for people to understand that their release is the most important goal of the war

“I have no way of knowing if such an operation can really help release the hostages, but we are doing everything in order for people to understand that their release is the most important goal of the war,” Dickmann said. “More and more people in Israel now understand that the aim of toppling Hamas is a very complex one and there is no chance that this can be accomplished as long as there are 240 babies, elderly, women and men being held hostage that cannot be hurt. This doesn’t work together.”

The challenge of releasing the hostages is a double one. The Israeli leadership must decide whether it will allow for any type and length of cease-fire in order to see part or all of the hostages released. It also must decide how much it is willing to risk the lives of the hostages as it pushes forward with its offensive against Hamas.

Hamas is believed to have much of its infrastructure in an intricate web of underground tunnels. This will pose a major challenge during the ground operation. It is assumed that many of the hostages are being held in these tunnels.

According to the Israeli military, it has already destroyed dozens of tunnels.

“The problem with the tunnels is that only one soldier can progress at a time, while the enemy which has prepared for these moments awaits fully protected,” explained retired Maj. Gen. Yaakov Amidror, senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and former national security adviser to Netanyahu. “There is no room for sophisticated warfare here.”

Israel is believed to possess technologies that are meant to dismantle the tunnel threat, but this could come at the cost of the lives of hostages. The Hamas tunnel network is not only used in order for the organization to hide and prepare its military operations, in the past they have also dug cross-border tunnels to be used in order to begin attacks against Israel. The Israeli defense establishment has been aware of this threat for over a decade.

“The tunnels could be blown up or sealed, suffocating anyone who is in them,” Amidror told The Media Line. “The fate of the hostages in such tunnels depends on intelligence, if there is information pointing to the presence of hostages in a tunnel, it will likely not be attacked.”

Further complicating matters is the assumption that Hamas is not the only organization holding the hostages. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad is reportedly holding tens of hostages and Palestinian families loosely affiliated to any of the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip are also believed to be holding some of them.

Israel has fought several wars against Hamas since it evacuated the Gaza Strip in 2005. It would not be the first time its ground forces have entered the territory, the last being in 2014. Hamas has made significant progress in its tunnel project and, backed by Iran, it has armed and trained its forces considerably.

Gaza is one of the most densely populated territories in the world. In this small enclave, Hamas terrorists often conceal themselves amid the civilian population.

“In the military profession, urban warfare is considered the toughest for the attacker and this is complicated even further with the presence of tunnels,” said Amidror.

In recent days, Netanyahu has ruled out any option of a temporary cease-fire that would allow for the flow of increased humanitarian aid into Gaza in return for a release of hostages.

“The problem with such a pause is that it gives the enemy time to regroup and reorganize its defense,” said Amidror. “Israel has applied pressure; stopping that pressure for any amount of time allows for this, and the IDF will face a more organized resistance. There is a price for this pause.”

But such a pause could bring the release of the hostages, something the families are very eager to see.

Various media reports indicate that negotiations on a hostage release were underway in Qatar, one of Hamas’ main state supporters. According to those reports, only a small fraction of hostages would be released in return for a temporary cessation of Israeli fire. In addition to Netanyahu shooting down such an option, many of the relatives of the hostages demand the release of all of them in return for any humanitarian concessions.

Many Israelis joined an online campaign to drink coffee at 3 pm, the same time that Sasha Trufanov would drink his coffee every day at his workplace.

“The balance isn’t in our favor,” said Haskell, “But any small action, any tiny movement of support could tip that balance.”