I think it is partly deterrence, but as has already been mentioned a lot of these hostages have already been killed and Israel in general has a policy where they are willing to 'write them off' if necessary. In particular they will aim to retrieve them to avoid there being hostages and intel loss even if this means the hostages dying. That would perhaps lessen how hesitant or reluctant they are to engage in large-scale bombing and aggressive ground operations.
The Israeli interest has always been in a slow-motion ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, rather than a sudden expulsion (e.g. repeating or going beyond the Nakhba). The latter would trigger to catastrophic an internal political crisis through uprising and geopolitical conflict. They are not stupid. I honestly think that either they messed up their intelligence or they underestimated how effective an attack they knew was coming would be, thinking it would further support their narrative of Israel needing to be defended from terrorism, which in practice in the West it has, though the actual immediate and local practical consequences could force them to escalate to a point where their open warfare on Palestinians backfires. In that sense, while Israel's policy, like the US's, relies on having a enemy which they can easily use to demonize the cause of Palestinian Liberation in general, while always ofc bearing the risk of backfiring.
I think it is partly deterrence, but as has already been mentioned a lot of these hostages have already been killed and Israel in general has a policy where they are willing to 'write them off' if necessary. In particular they will aim to retrieve them to avoid there being hostages and intel loss even if this means the hostages dying. That would perhaps lessen how hesitant or reluctant they are to engage in large-scale bombing and aggressive ground operations.
The Israeli interest has always been in a slow-motion ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, rather than a sudden expulsion (e.g. repeating or going beyond the Nakhba). The latter would trigger to catastrophic an internal political crisis through uprising and geopolitical conflict. They are not stupid. I honestly think that either they messed up their intelligence or they underestimated how effective an attack they knew was coming would be, thinking it would further support their narrative of Israel needing to be defended from terrorism, which in practice in the West it has, though the actual immediate and local practical consequences could force them to escalate to a point where their open warfare on Palestinians backfires. In that sense, while Israel's policy, like the US's, relies on having a enemy which they can easily use to demonize the cause of Palestinian Liberation in general, while always ofc bearing the risk of backfiring.