The last time Hamas released a hostage, it took 5 years for him to be freed
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- The IDF said Hamas is holding nearly 200 people hostage after carrying out a deadly terror attack.
- Hamas has said it doesn't plan release the hostages.
- The last time Hamas freed a hostage was in 2011, when it released the IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
Hamas is holding nearly 200 people hostage after it carried out a deadly terror attack in Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Hamas has said it has no plans to release any of the hostages, and a senior leader in the militant group said earlier this month that "this file will not be opened until the end of the battle."
The last time Hamas released a hostage was in 2011, when it freed the IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
Shalit was a young conscript in the Israeli military when he was captured by Hamas in 2006. The Israeli army responded to the kidnapping by attacking the Gaza Strip with airstrikes. Israel finally secured Shalit's release five years later in 2011 by agreeing to swap 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit.
Shalit's release was widely celebrated across Israel, and people in his hometown of Mitzpe Hila were seen cheering from the rooftops, popping champagne bottles, singing songs, and waving the Israeli flag as he arrived home, NPR reported in 2011.
Shalit, who was 25 years old when he was freed, said in an interview shortly after his release that he was afraid he would have stayed in captivity for "many more years" and was thankful to be heading home to his family and friends, NPR reported at the time.
He also said that he hoped the prisoner exchange deal would "promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians," NPR reported.
Gershon Baskin, an American-Israeli peace activist and the Middle East director for a UK-based NGO, told Insider that Israel was initially unwilling to swap more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for Shalit.
But Israel has an "ethos of a people's army that promises that we don't leave anyone behind," said Baskin, who works for the International Communities Organization and played a role in securing Shalit's release.
"And there was a sense that if we did sacrifice Gilad Shalit and left him behind, that would make it very difficult to claim that there's a people's army," Baskin added.
The IDF said on Monday that it killed Osama al-Mazini, a senior official from Hamas' political wing who was in charge of negotiating the 2011 prisoner swap.
The Israeli military also said that it has informed the families of 199 people that their loved ones were kidnapped and taken into Gaza following this month's attacks and that it's using "all intelligence and operational means to return the abductees."
Hamas also published a video in which one of the hostages, 21-year-old Mia Schem, said she was captured and begged to be returned to her family. Schem was at the Nova music festival in southern Israel when militants parachuted into the rave and began opening fire on festivalgoers.
The IDF said that Hamas "is trying to present itself as a humanitarian organization while acting as a hideous terrorist organization responsible for killing and kidnapping infants, women, children and the elderly."
Baskin told Insider there is "no comparison" between Shalit's capture and the kidnapping of Israeli civilians this month.
Shalit was "a prisoner of war," Baskin said.
"These are not prisoners of war," Baskin added. "These are hostages who were abducted from their homes."
Israel has relentlessly bombarded the Gaza Strip since Hamas' October 7 terror attacks. The attacks claimed 1,400 lives in Israel, and the Palestinian health ministry said that more than 2,800 people in Gaza have died as a result of Israel's counteroffensive. Nearly one-third of those who died were children, according to Palestinian officials.
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Wednesday, October 18, 2023
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