This "free the hostages" mantra is bull####. Let's just imagine that Hamas came out and said we've killed them all, there are no more hostages... then what would Israel do? Withdraw? Oh, wait...now it's "Hamas must surrender!" OK, so the the leadership of Hamas surrenders or is killed, and??... I'm going to guess the goalposts move again. Now "every Palestinian must disarm and move to the West Bank" ...
We've watched 2 other wars this century with massively disproportionate forces trying to eliminate the threat of being attacked by a completely outclassed enemy. This one's no different. The first two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan, haven't gone all that well for the superior forces, and I think Israel knows that and understands the only way to eliminate threats from Gaza is to eliminate the Palestinians from Gaza. At the same time, they'll continue working to crowd them out from the West Bank with settlements until all Arab/Muslims disperse into Egypt, Jordan, or who really cares where?
That is the goal of this war. That is the ultimate outcome of this war, unless enough international pressure stops Netanyahu et al.
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