Hamas Could Have let those Hostages Just Drive Away, Saving 200+ Civilians
The rescue of four Israeli hostages on Saturday was going well, with few casualties. Until Hamas attacked and tried to kill the escaping hostages.
As Israel celebrates the rare return of some of their hostages, Western media for the most part focuses on the tragic death toll at the end of the extraction operation.
Implicit in their coverage is that Israel is responsible, and perhaps careless, for killing 200+ people in the raid. But what is not said is that the extraction itself killed very few people, and probably almost all terrorists. The deadly fight was started afterwards, and pointlessly, by Hamas.
Hamas started the fight in a civilian area
It was Hamas who escalated to a fire fight in a civilian area. The hostages were already in a car or van being driven away, according to Washington Post reporting (paywall):
The soldiers were able to get the three hostages and the injured man into a vehicle, but it broke down under Hamas fire from rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, officials said. At one point, Avivi said, they were forced to abandon the vehicle and seek refuge in a building nearby.
The commanders called for air support.
“The air force started shooting to give them a corridor; […] Explosions rocked the narrow streets, which have only grown more crowded in recent weeks with families displaced by Israel’s offensive in southern Gaza.
There are legitimate questions, of course. Could the IDF have created a safe corridor out of this densely-populated area without killing so many civilians? My guess is they could not, but I’m not a military expert.
It is important to note that Hamas could have just let the hostages and rescuers drive peacefully out of Gaza.
Let them die, or fight the way out?
I suppose another question is whether or not Israel should have given them the air support to escape. Some (who I will disagree with) might claim that if 200 people are at risk, you should just abandon your troops and hostages to die.
If so, they can make that claim (and some will in the comments, I am sure).
But any reasonable person understands that if your troops are attacked, along with innocent civilian hostages, you have to fight your way out, including using air support, and that is a legitimate reason for civilian casualties to be killed.
No military advantage for Hamas actions
It is important to note that Hamas could have just let the hostages and rescuers drive peacefully out of Gaza. As you would expect, Hamas instead tried to kill the hostages, and got 200+ innocent Gazans killed in the process.
This action is representative of the entire war in three ways, where this attack immediately after the hostage rescue parallels the Oct 7th attack that started it all:
- Hamas did not need to attack in the first place, and they knew many innocent Gazans would die in the response. They attacked anyway.
- Hamas launches attacks without any legitimate military objective. Their objective is to “create a state of permanent war” as they told the NY Times.
- Media focuses on number of dead, blames Israel, and often obscures Hamas intent and responsibility.
Sadly, killing innocent Gazan civilians is official Hamas policy:
The deaths are, of course a tragedy. Media coverage is a travesty.
It is driven, of course by “oppression obsession” which is a problem that goes even deeper and was only illuminated by the recent eruption of Hamas support.
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