Why did Hamas take hostages?

+ what causes earthquakes? US Edition - Today's top story: Israel has no good options for dealing with Hamas' hostage-taking in Gaza [View in browser]( US Edition | 11 October 2023 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( Top headlines - [Gaza Strip’s history is backdrop to current conflict]( - [Seawater is moving inland, harming people and ecosystems]( - [Your immune system makes its own antiviral drug]( Lead story The massive surprise assault on Israel by Gaza-based militant group Hamas that began on Oct. 7 included rocket attacks on major cities as well as sieges by gunmen on towns close to the border with Gaza. Israel has retaliated with airstrikes on the cities of Gaza. The death toll so far includes more than 1,200 Israelis and 900 Palestinians. There is another kind of victim of this conflict: Hamas has taken approximately 150 people hostage, including young children, the elderly and some military personnel. The overwhelming majority of those now held captive in Gaza are civilians. Some are Americans. It’s hard to write about these hostages without being emotionally affected by it. As a mother, sister and wife, I cannot imagine what it must be like, not only for those captives but for their terrified families. And for the government that must negotiate over them. Scholar James Forest, a hostage expert at UMass Lowell, provides readers today with an informative and dispassionate analysis of [hostage-taking – why it’s done, and how Israel might respond to it](. Forest says that one of the reasons groups take hostages is to generate sympathy for their cause. But “taking innocents hostage, especially children and the elderly, is condemned worldwide, and it will be hard to find sympathy for the perpetrators of such crimes even when they’re claiming to free their land from occupation,” he writes. [ [Science from the scientists themselves. Sign up for our weekly science email newsletter.]( ] Naomi Schalit Senior Editor, Politics + Democracy Pictures are put together on a pavement beside candles during the ‘Jewish Community Vigil’ for Israel in London on Oct. 9, 2023. AP Photo/Kin Cheung [Israel has no good options for dealing with Hamas’ hostage-taking in Gaza]( James Forest, UMass Lowell An estimated 150 hostages were taken by Hamas in Israel and brought back to Gaza. The government of Israel faces tough choices in dealing with the crisis. Politics + Society - [Why the crisis in Israel is putting pressure on GOP to act over vacant House speaker role]( Laura Blessing, Georgetown University A major crisis abroad may exacerbate internal divisions within one of the US's major political parties. 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