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...

  • posthexbearposting [they/them]
    ·
    9 months ago

    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.

    • Doubledee [comrade/them]
      ·
      9 months ago

      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.

      • Frank [he/him, he/him]
        ·
        9 months ago

        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.