I say this, since the Western news media seems to have stopped pretending to care about a pretence of neutrality and bringing up human shields and the "savage Islamic radical hordes" again...
Idc if it's IDF soldiers and political figures they're only capturing, but it seems to also include settler civilians, specifically some women, others elderly, and a few youths (may or may not be teens).
It's an unknown amount, but it seems like a lot more than some dozens
What the hell do they need them for? As a bargaining chip?
Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/dna-prayers-israelis-desperate-word-missing-kin-hamas-attack-2023-10-08/
Edit 1: What if they left the collaborator settler "civilians" alone, but kept the important political and military figures with them
Edit 2: On second thoughts, the settlers can seem to be indirectly, if not fully committed to this settler-colonial project, considering by the presence of paramilitaries and settling alone...
I know they're settlers, but Wdym, it's not like every women, child or elderly person there knows krav maga, if not military training, and stole Palestinian homes directly...
When you move into an illegal settlement you are directly stealing Palestinian homes. That's how it works. "Civilians" do it all the time in cooperation with the military.
Yeah it's worth emphasizing, part of the way the settlement has historically worked is more militant settlers deliberately putting themselves in harm's way by going places the Israeli government isn't currently occupying and taking provocative steps to remove people in their way. The IDF follows because the fallout of an asshole getting beaten to death by the people he is stealing land from would be bad politically for whoever is in charge of the Knesset. Many of these settlements are deliberate acts of theft by the individuals making them, not people who happened to buy a house in a subdivision without reading the history of the area.
Okey then...
It really is that simple. Settlers are actively invading and stealing Palestinian land and property, sometimes with their own guns, sometimes protected by the guns of the idf. They are not meaningfully civilians in the sense that the term is usually used. "Non-combatants" is probably more appropriate, though many of them are heavily armed and some engage directly in armed attacks on Palestinians.
Hmm, kinda like the United States....
Not every passenger on the Mayflower held a musket or sliced an Indian's scalp either. Not every antebellum plantation family member tortured their slaves. And I'm sure not every Nazi personally shot a Jew. Yet, I don't feel bad when they got what was coming to them.
Wait, on sec. thoughts, I kinda changed my mind when I realized that most of the adult civillians, when I realized they most likely had military training to become a citizen in it...
Still unsure why a few of the under-18 year olds are part of the hostages...