Among the most wretched of the victims of the bloody Hamas attack nine days ago are the hostages — 199, according to Israel — that the group took with them to Gaza. They include a journalist in his Eighties and a grandmother who had survived the Holocaust, as well as women and children. Their situation is desperately precarious.
Hamas has let it be known that they are in tunnels and other “safe places”, but some may have already died in the bombardment of Gaza. If the coming Israeli ground offensive in Gaza is in part aimed at their liberation, it carries the obvious risk that this will make their situation more dangerous.
We must hope that the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, has urged Arab regional leaders to take the hostages’ part. Their best hope may be that Hamas’s backers insist that they are given up. In the past, hostage negotiations have taken place in secrecy; let’s hope this is happening.
Meanwhile up to a million — estimates vary — citizens of southern Gaza have left their homes in anticipation of the Israeli ground offensive. The situation of civilians who remain, including those who are unfit to travel, is bleak. President Joe Biden has called on Israel to exercise “restraint”.
But the obvious question about the offensive, besides the risk to civilians, is what is the aim? If it is for Israel to occupy Gaza, it raises the grim prospect of an Iraq-style situation, dangerous to the occupiers and terrible for the occupied. If it is the replacement of Hamas with the Palestinian Authority, it may not work. If it is simply the elimination of Hamas fighters in Gaza, it may succeed in killing many of its present leaders, but others will be radicalised still further.
There are no good options for Israel. The least bad would be the exercise of restraint in undertaking this grim and perilous operation.
Don’t glorify murder
Saturday’s March for Palestine saw thousands of people supporting Palestinians in Gaza. Among them were a minority who expressed support for the Hamas massacre in a repugnant way. Two wore images of paragliders in a reference to those who committed the massacre.
The Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, says the police will arrest those who glorify terrorism. Peaceful protest is one thing; support for indiscriminate murder is another.
Cruellest cut
The music director of English National Opera, Martyn Brabbins, has resigned after cuts meant that he would lose a quarter of the orchestra. Small wonder. And the blame lies squarely with Arts Council England, whose philistine cuts to its budget has all but destroyed the ENO.
