Operation: Saxon Needles; Week 3, Day 7.

And it seems another day has passed.

Without that Hamas-Qatar alliance producing the release of a single hostage.

Let the release of any meaningful number of hostages.

So I think it's time for me to address that debate;

Over whether Israel should prosecute the war declared against it. Or wait until the hostages have been released?

That is an entirely false dichotomy.

War is how Israel releases the hostages. Or, realistically, what gives Israel its best chance of recovering the most number of hostages.

Back in July 2014 Israel found itself engaged in a short skirmish in Gaza; "Operation: Protective Edge." This grew out of; "Operation: Brother's Keeper," on the Occupied West Bank.

Brother's Keeper was triggered by the kidnapping, torture and murder of three Jewish teenagers. The fact they lived on the illegal settlement of Talmon significantly reduces the amount of sympathy I'm able to feel for them. However, the misfortune of their birth is no great enough of a crime for me to deny them basic human dignity.

http://watchitdie.blogspot.com/2014/07/my-brothers-keeper-week-4-day-6.html

What caused Protective Edge to grow out of Brother's Keeper was a Hamas attack on the Sufa Kibbutz. 

Using an attack tunnel 13 Hamas members crossed into southern Israel. 4 were immediately killed by the IDF, prompting the other 9 to retreat. Leaving us no other choice than to assume that their intention was to kill and/or kidnap as many Israeli civilians as possible.

http://watchitdie.blogspot.com/2014/07/my-brothers-keeper-week-5-day-1.html

Just two months before that, in April 2014, Nigeria experienced a similar, but much larger attack. In which 276 female students were kidnapped in an armed raid on the Government Girls School in the town of Chibok, Borno State.

Although it regularly competes with South Africa for the title of; "Africa's Largest Economy! " Nigeria is, at best, a middle-income country. It is certainly not a Tier 1 military power.

So Nigeria was not lucky enough to have the option of conducting a comprehensive military action to recover those young women.

To this day, Nigeria has still not got its girls back.

Over 9 years later more than 90 of them are still being held hostage.

https://www.opendoorsuk.org/news/latest-news/nigeria-chibok-women/

23:59 on 27/10/23 (UK date).