聽is an associate professor of International Development Studies at聽.
It is usually quite difficult to get people and things in and out of Gaza. Until this weekend.
Thousands of rockets poured out of Gaza, and .
. and that families were being notified.
Videos of Israelis being abducted were filmed by Hamas and shared on social media and through WhatsApp groups.
But where these hostages are being held is anyone鈥檚 guess.
Qatari officials have been attempting . Hamas, meantime, has announced that .
A couple of different messages can be taken from this.
Deterring retaliation?
First, it could mean that Israeli hostages are being held across Gaza in order to deter any major bombardment from Israel or to deter Israeli defence forces from a ground invasion.
Or it could mean that Hamas itself is unclear as to how many hostages it has, and who they are.
Already carrying assault rifles. Another video showed a German woman dragged through the streets in Gaza.
Israelis have been taken as hostages before. In 1985, a Trans World Airlines jet who demanded the release of 700 Shi鈥檌te Muslims from Israeli custody.
, Gilad Shalit, captured by Hamas in 2006.
In 2014, Hamas kidnapped and executed .
But this time it is different.
Highly orchestrated
This is no ordinary prisoner diplomacy. This is not a desperate attempt to free prisoners on the other side or to broker a deal. Nor is it using civilian prisoners in a diplomatic proxy war, like the exchange between Canada and China for .鈥�
It鈥檚 a highly orchestrated act by Hamas meant to achieve three political goals.
The first is to disrupt the emerging diplomacy between Israel and Saudi Arabia. The second is to mock Benjamin Netanyahu鈥檚 . And finally, it could be aimed at undermining .
While Hamas advocates using armed resistance and , Fatah believes in negotiating with Israel for a and has ruled out using force.
A living nightmare
The Israeli hostages in Gaza are living a nightmare. They鈥檙e likely to remain displaced, under duress and will be the human shields of this war.
The confidence of Hamas to carry out this attack is also cause for concern. Who is providing resources and arms to Hamas needs to be made clear. Already , and has gathered intelligence revealing that through complex smuggling networks involving sea-to-sea transfers.
After the initial bombardment, it appears Hamas is preparing for an Israeli ground invasion, counting on Israel鈥檚 internal political chaos and assuming the Israeli target list for aerial assault is now outdated.
If ground fighting breaks out between Hamas and Israeli forces, the hostages will likely be squarely in the middle of it.
For this war, these hostages are not meant to be used to solve diplomatic spats. They are intended to be put in the deadly cross-hairs of what is certainly going to continue to be a brutal and bloody conflict.
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