– This is in every way sensational, we have not seen anything like this before. Not just in Israel, but anywhere.
This is what Danish Jens Serup at the security company Guardian tells Dagbladet.
He has many years of experience from hostage negotiations in various parts of the world, including several countries in the Middle East.
Despite his wide experience, he is still clear about one thing: The scale of the hostage situation that arose in the wake of Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on Saturday is completely unprecedented.
Son kidnapped in Gaza: – A living nightmare
Over 120 civilians
It is still uncertain how many hostages are still in Hamas’ captivity after Saturday’s bloody attack on Israeli soil.
Both Hamas and the Israeli authorities have said earlier this week that it is about 150 people, but news agency AP points out that the figure has not been verified by independent sources.
TAKEN HOSTAGE: Here, one of the participants at the Tribe of Nova rave party is taken hostage last Saturday. Photo: AP/NTB Show more
On Saturday morning, the Israeli army says there are over 120 civilian hostages.
The hostages in total are both civilians and soldiers.
Serup reminds that hostages are capital for Hamas. Middle East expert and UiO researcher Dag Henrik Tuastad does the same.
Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit was held captive for five years before being released as part of an exchange deal in 2011.
In exchange for Shalit, Hamas managed to free 1,027 Palestinian and Israeli Arabs from Israeli prisons.
RELEASED: The Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit was released in 2011 in a prisoner exchange after five years in Hamas’ captivity. Photo: Khalid Farid / AP / NTB Show more
– Today there are over 5,000 political Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. Some of these have been in place for over 20 years, says Tuastad.
He also says that the prisoner exchange in 2011 was really an exception.
– In the seven cases since the end of the 1980s where a total of eleven Israeli soldiers have been captured, Gilad Shalit is the only one who has actually been exchanged. The other soldiers have been killed, says Tuastad.
In connection with Israel’s mini-invasion of Gaza in 2014, there was a discussion about a secret directive in the Israeli army, the so-called Hannibal directive, explains the Middle East expert.
– It meant that when soldiers confronted hostage-takers, all means were to be used to eliminate the hostage-takers, even if this meant that the Israeli soldiers were also killed. In Israel, questions were asked whether this meant “rather death than kidnapping”.
Probably in the tunnels
The hostages are probably in the extensive internal tunnel system inside Gaza, both Tuastad and Serup believe.
VERY COMPLICATED: Jens Serup in the Danish security company Guardian has many years of experience in hostage negotiations, including with IS. He explains that the hostage drama taking place in Israel and Gaza is unprecedented. Photo: Private Show more
So does Hamas.
– The hostages are probably also scattered around, and there is also the possibility that different groups are negotiating about the various hostages, says Serup to Dagbladet.
He also does not rule out that the various hostages have different values for Hamas: children, the elderly, foreign nationals and soldiers.
On the night of Saturday, there were new reports of airstrikes on Gaza, while Israel’s army said it had carried out some raids inside the Gaza Strip.
Among other things, it has been to gather information about where the hostages Hamas has taken are, the army says.
KIDNAPPED: Sagui Dekel-Chen is a hostage in Gaza. Photo: Private Show more
Both the newspaper Ha’aretz and the Jerusalem Post write that the IDF has found corpses of hostages. It is not clear how many there are, or other details about the findings.
Hamas’s militant wing the Qassam Brigades reported yesterday that 13 of the hostages had been killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Earlier on Saturday night, US President Joe Biden said that the country is working hard to find US citizens who have been taken hostage by Hamas.
– We will do everything in our power to find them. I don’t want to go into the details, but we are working hard on it, he says in an interview with the TV program “60 minutes”, according to Reuters.
WAS TAKEN: David Moshe and his wife Adina Moshe are also among the many hostages believed to have been taken by Hamas. Photo: Anat Moshe Shoshany / Elinor Shahar Personal Management / AP / NTB Show more
Propaganda war
Turkish authorities have begun negotiations with Hamas over the release of Israeli hostages, a senior anonymous source told AFP and Reuters on Thursday.
– They are negotiating to secure the release of the hostages, the source told AFP.
Qatar will also be involved in the negotiations. Sources have previously stated to Reuters that the negotiations have so far dealt with women and children among the hostages, and that attempts are being made to exchange them for Palestinian women and children in Israeli prisons.
Thought they were safe
Serup, for his part, believes that there is a very limited political climate for negotiations between Israel and Hamas about the hostages now. With the difficult political climate, he believes it is also obvious that they need an independent party for this job.
– I don’t think they will be able to find a solution to this on their own. I can’t imagine that.
He further believes, given the scale of Hamas’ attacks on Israel, that the hostages are a secondary concern for Israel right now.
– Now the Israeli authorities are thinking about one thing, and that is to take revenge. They do not mince words in their statements now: Hamas must be wiped out, whatever the cost.
KIDNAPPED: Moran Yanai is one of those believed to have been taken hostage by Hamas after the Tribe of Nova festival. Photo: Elinor Shahar Personal Management / AP / NTB Show more
Earlier this week, the Israeli authorities stated that the attacks on Gaza will not stop until the hostages are released. From Hamas’s side, it has been stated that they will not start negotiations about the hostages until the attacks cease.
At the same time, the death toll in both Israel and Gaza continues to rise.
Read all Dagbladet’s stories about the ongoing war here.
– Have gone “all in”
What Hamas wants with the attack on Israel is, however, of great importance in the question of the hostages, Serup believes.
He points out that Hamas has one main goal, which is also enshrined in its own charter: the annihilation of Israel.
SHIPPED AWAY: The kidnappers used Kibbutz Kfar Aza’s own golf carts to transport many of the hostages to Gaza. Photo: Hatem Ali / AP / NTB Show more
– They do not want a negotiated solution. Therefore, it can also be seen that what they have done now is to go “all in”.
If they start executing hostages in public, as IS did in 2014, it is likely that other actors will also be forced in, believes Serup.
– Nothing shapes public opinion like that. This was also seen with IS’s executions. The coalition against IS was then strengthened.
The fact that there are foreign nationals among the hostages makes the situation even more complicated, Serup believes.
– Israel may not even have the mandate to negotiate on their behalf, he says.
At the other end of the spectrum lies the possibility that Hamas will try to paint a somewhat more humane image of itself.
MISSING: Many families have made posters of their missing. Photo: NTB Show more
– Very difficult task
Serup emphasizes that the parties who will negotiate this have a very difficult task.
– What is the reason why you get so little information about the hostages?
– One thing is that an overview must be obtained, and it is an extensive job. The second – and it goes without saying – is that with all the emotions involved in such a difficult case, you don’t want anything to become public knowledge. It creates reactions from all quarters, and you have little interest in that.
However, that can turn around, Serup admits.
– Hamas may eventually choose to make this public. I think we will probably see more propaganda videos at some point. Either in the form of execution videos, or videos of captured children, women and the elderly.
2023-10-14 08:51:27
#hostage #drama #Unparalleled
