Yesterday, the IDF rescued one of the over 200 hostages currently held by Hamas. This small success suggests that invading Gaza, rather than negotiating, may be the most effective way to free the others. Yet the presence of the hostages, who might be murdered by their captors or inadvertently killed by the Israeli assault, still presents a painful conundrum for the Jewish state. Shlomo Brody considers the moral dimensions:
Even if Hamas slowly releases some captives, they will be sure to get something in return, and they are unlikely to make concessions to Israel. . . . Israel has encouraged this hostage-taking by offering [highly] beneficial deals to its adversaries in the past. This must stop, even amid the challenge of facing tearful families.
Urban warfare within Gaza will endanger the captives, in part because Israel will not know if its attacks will land on hidden captivity spots. Some suspect that Hamas will use the captives as human shields. After all, they’ve done it with Palestinians, so we have no reason to believe that they wouldn’t do the same with Israelis, including children.
Yet [the IDF] cannot allow its military response to be defeated by Hamas’s hostage-taking. The security of all Israelis—those held captive and those back home in Israel—depends on allowing the IDF to achieve a decisive victory.
Read more on City Journal: https://www.city-journal.org/article/do-not-hold-israel-hostage