2023-10-27 21:18:29
Following the October 7 attack by Hamas, terrorists killed 1,400 people and took at least 222 hostages, the youngest only 9 months old and the oldest 85 years old. Four of the hostages have Hungarian roots. On Friday Péter Szijjártó Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade stated:
On Tuesday, we received information about two persons with Hungarian citizenship, on Wednesday about a person with Hungarian citizenship, and yesterday about another person of Hungarian origin. So we are aware of four hostages with Hungarian involvement, two of them are children, so we were informed about these hostages on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, partly by the Israeli authorities and partly by the families themselves.
The names of two of the four hostages have been made public: they are two girls with dual Hungarian-Israeli citizenship, the eight-year-old About Ella and the 15-year-old About Daphne.
In addition to the identified hostages, about 80 people are listed as missing, and so far not all the dead have been identified, as the terrorists burned the bodies of many of their victims. In addition to Israelis, the hostages include Germans, Mexicans, Americans, Thais, and Brazilians, many of whom are dual citizens. According to the news, Hamas militants took several dead bodies with them, and other terrorist organizations and criminal groups also crossed the Gaza border on October 7 and then took their own hostages.
According to current information, more than 20 hostages are under the age of 18, there may be between ten and twenty over the age of 60, and ten are American citizens, it turned out. Antony Blinken from the words of the US Secretary of State.
So far, Hamas has released four women, two American-Israeli dual citizens and two elderly Israeli women. He is 79 years old Nurit Coopert and his 85-year-old girlfriend Jocheved Lipshitzet He was released on Monday citing “compelling humanitarian” reasons. Three days before the American-Israeli Judith Raanant and her teenage daughter, Natalie-t was released. Along with Lipshitz and Cooper, their husbands, who were abducted from the Nir Oz kibbutz at the same time – about a quarter of the 400-person settlement were killed in the attack – are still among the hostages, as are eight of the Raanans’ relatives. It is not yet known why these four people were chosen by the terrorists.
Hamas originally claimed that they would not release the hostages until Israel stopped its attack on the Gaza Strip.
Lipshitz gave a rather detailed statement about what happened to him outside the Tel Aviv hospital. He said,
I went through a hell like I couldn’t imagine before.
He was abducted on a motorcycle, then forced to walk several kilometers underground, which was painful, while he was beaten with sticks, resulting in numerous bruises. In Gaza, they were led into a vast, “spider web-like” tunnel system, where the guards promised them, referring to the Koran, that they would not be hurt. First, he was in a room with 25 prisoners, then he was transferred to another room, where there were five people from the kibbutz with him, and where a clean mattress was waiting for him on the floor, they received the same food as their guards (cucumber and cheese), as well as regular medical supervision, moreover, they also received their medicines.
They took great care of hygiene so that we wouldn’t get sick. They were generous and very kind. They paid attention to every detail. There are a lot of women and they know about women’s hygiene, they take care of everything
– translated the words of the daughter of the woman who shook hands with her captor when she was released, Sharone Lipshitz.
Israeli discontent
At the same time, this cannot be of much comfort to the Israeli families who only saw their captured, often bloody children and relatives in the videos published by Hamas in the initial stages – this is what the mother of the two kidnapped Hungarian girls said. Majan Zin also for Hetek and Foreign Policy.
Weeks have passed since the Hamas attack, and the relatives have no new information about their detained family members. They fear that Israel’s ground offensive will put the lives of their loved ones at further risk, as Hamas often uses the Palestinian people as human shields.
Artur Widak / NurPhoto / AFP Edmonton’s Jewish community gathers as part of a vigil for hostages held by Hamas on October 25, 2023 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Their concerns are not alleviated by the Israeli government either: they receive no response to their inquiries from the cabinet, the army, or the coordinator responsible for kidnapped and missing Israelis. Latter, Gal Hirs he was commander of the military when he was forced to resign in 2006 due to criticism of him in the Lebanon war.
The family members who (also) have American citizenship say that they were better off, they have already been consulted personally or via video chat by the American president, the foreign minister and a group of senators. Joe Biden the president’s video meeting was planned for 15 minutes – one of his advisors reminded him of this – and ended up lasting 90 minutes because he wanted to listen to everyone. The US is also negotiating separately through the Qatari supporters of Hamas.
The family members of the hostages created a separate organization, the Forum of Families of Hostages and Missing Persons, and hundreds of volunteers are working to bring the abductees home, at the same time they help the family members, they organize media appearances for the domestic and foreign press, so that no one accidentally forgets about the hostage victims. . Several former diplomats work for the team, so for example a former spy chief with extensive connections in the Arab world also negotiates on their behalf. Tech companies have also offered their help, monitoring the detainees’ posts on social media and trying to identify their location through their mobile phones.
The families of the hostages expect Israel to negotiate, even with the involvement of international partners, to release the hostages in return for the resumption of water and electricity networks, as well as the provision of medicine and food. According to some reports, Hamas has already offered the release of two dozen women and children in exchange for 36 women and teenagers held in Israeli prisons, but this has been refused by the Israeli government.
The last time Israel entered into a prisoner exchange was in 2011, then the soldier Gilád Salitért in return, more than a thousand Palestinians were released in the country still led by Netanyahu. Among them are terrorists who assisted in several assassinations, such as the current de facto leader of Hamas, Jahja Szinvart is.
PMO / AFP Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit salutes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Tel Nof airbase near Tel Aviv on October 18, 2011 after his release from five years of Hamas captivity.
Hamas is in a double bind
Israel originally wanted to launch the ground invasion immediately, but this was eventually postponed partly because of the prisoners, because, on the one hand, according to the government, they are a “top priority”, and on the other hand, the United States and several European countries are asking the Jewish state to do so.
Israel, on the other hand, must also keep in mind that a land invasion remains a real threat, because a delay of even just a few weeks would help Hamas prepare for a land invasion, and thus its survival.
With these small hostage releases, Hamas is buying time and eroding initial international support for Israel, as well as the rapidly increasing number of Palestinian civilian casualties.
he told the Wall Street Journal Tariq Kenney-Shawaof the California-based Palestinian think tank al-Shabaka.
From Lipshitz’s account Ken Gray, a professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven and a former FBI agent, drew two conclusions. On the one hand, if the hostages at Hamas are divided into smaller groups, it will make the tasks of Israeli intelligence, which is already turning to the Gaza population for help, difficult, as well as their future rescue. And on the other hand
they want to convey the information that they treat the hostages very well, they want to show that they are humane with them.
And with all this, they want to counter the destruction of the expected ground operation.
Meanwhile, Hamas does not want to keep too many hostages either, because this will also exhaust their own resources. Allegedly, the organization itself was surprised by how successful they were in taking the hostages on October 7.
Intensive negotiations
In the meantime, negotiations for the release of the hostages are ongoing – the United States, Egypt and Qatar are involved in mediation between the parties. According to the news, the latter is the main player in the negotiations, they could also have negotiated the release of the Americans – and Egypt supposedly negotiated the release of the Israelis, although Hamas does not recognize this.
Time is pressing for Hamas to release a larger group of around 50 people, as the ground operation could start within a few days, but such a move could delay the Israeli offensive. At the same time, they also have to face many difficult circumstances.
Mahmud HAMS / AFP The city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 27, 2023.
In exchange for the prisoners, Hamas wants more humanitarian aid, a reduction in the intensity of airstrikes and fuel for hospitals and the population, but the Israeli government is not willing to negotiate on the latter for the time being, because it is afraid that Hamas would use it to launch rockets. “We wouldn’t be delivering fuel to Gaza even if all the hostages were released,” he said on Monday Benjamin Netanyahu senior adviser to the prime minister, Mark Regevalthough this was denied by the Israeli Chief of Staff the very next day. Herci Halevi according to him, in order to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe, it is possible to transfer fuel if it can be prevented from falling into the hands of Hamas.
The UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees operating in Gaza drew attention on Tuesday to the fact that if no fuel arrives, they will be forced to abandon their entire operation, including the supply of 600,000 Palestinians housed in refugee camps.
Initially, Hamas demanded that children and women in Israeli prisons be released in exchange for the children and women, this has already been agreed, and they do not plan to keep the civilian hostages under their supervision for months, according to a senior Hamas official involved in the negotiations . Because these conditions only apply to civilians, Hamas also took soldiers hostage, but they would only be released in exchange for the 6,000 Palestinian prisoners imprisoned in Israel.
Another problem is, even if an agreement were to be reached, how the evacuation would be implemented in practice. At the moment, the Israeli army is constantly holding Gaza under fire – taking more than 6,500 victims so far – and it is feared that the lives of the hostages would also be in danger when they are handed over. For the time being, the Israeli government does not consider a ceasefire possible, but Joe Biden also stated that a ceasefire could only be discussed after the hostages have been released.
The situation is complicated by the fact that the hostages may be scattered at several points of the many kilometers long, branching, almost untraceable tunnel system in order to hinder Israeli operations. At the same time, Israel claims it has intelligence on the exact whereabouts of the hostages.
Thirdly, there is also the question of who Hamas considers a soldier and who not, since every man and woman in Israel must perform military service. This is also a question because if the civilian hostages were to be released by the terrorist organization, then Israel would probably start a ground offensive immediately, and they would try to free the captured soldiers by deploying special units. He makes this solution probable in his interview with Intelligencer Gershon Baskin who brought Gilád Salit’s hostage exchange under the roof.
The war is not over, and neither is mine, until everyone returns
Sharone Lipshitz, who is still waiting for her father to come home, said at her mother’s welcome press conference.
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