Analysis | Hostages complicate Israel’s plan for vengeance against Hamas attack
- Palestinian group Hamas took dozens of hostages to Gaza after dramatic assault on Israeli towns
- The hostage taking makes Israel’s response more complicated – and potentially more deadly
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s options for hitting Hamas over its deadly incursion into Israel could be reined in by concern for the many Israelis seized in the raid, as a nation scarred by past hostage crises faces perhaps its worst one yet.
In a dramatic assault launched from Gaza on Saturday, the Palestinian group Hamas stormed into Israeli towns, killing hundreds of Israelis and escaping with dozens of hostages, in the deadliest day for Israel since the 1973 war.
Netanyahu has vowed “mighty vengeance” but the fate of the Israeli soldiers, elderly people, women and children taken into Gaza – the numbers are still unclear – complicates how Israel delivers on its promise to hit back hard and fast, while sticking to a long-standing principle of leaving no one behind.
Israelis are reeling from the assault and from images of fellow citizens being bundled off to Gaza.
“There is no chance she will come back,” sobbed a young Israeli girl, talking about her sister who was killed in the attack, while she and her parents were held hostage.