WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime has not prioritized the safe return of captives amid its ongoing war on Palestinians in Gaza, a new investigation by Israeli news outlet Ynet has revealed.
According to the report, both the regime and the military are fully aware that army attacks pose a grave risk to the captives and have, in fact, already led to fatalities.
“The maneuver kills captives, not theoretically, it actually kills them,” a security source told Ynet. 
The source cited a specific incident in November 2023 as an example, in which an Israeli airstrike killed three Israeli captives along with a senior Hamas military commander, Ahmed Ghandour.
“That’s what happens when you’re pursuing two conflicting objectives at the same time,” said the source, who holds a senior position in Israeli intelligence.
He stated that his main task within intelligence had become “to save the captives, mainly from ourselves”, referring to the extreme danger Israeli military operations are believed to pose to the hostages’ lives.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, war minister Israel Katz and top military officials have repeatedly insisted that continued military pressure is the only viable strategy to secure the release of captives, 59 of whom are still being held in Gaza.
“Ask any officer in the army today what the current war plan entails, beyond vague talk of ‘pressure’ to bring back the captives,” the source said. “We’ve been trying that for 19 months. It doesn’t work.”
The source also described the planned expanded ground invasion as offering Hamas “two options: release the captives and we will kill you, or don’t release them and we will still kill you. Of course, Hamas chooses the second option”.
Haaretz reported earlier this week that securing the release of captives ranked at the bottom of six stated objectives for the Zionist regime’s upcoming expanded military assault in Gaza, code-named “Gideon’s Chariots”.
The primary goals of the operation reportedly include defeating Hamas, establishing operational control over Gaza, demilitarizing the Palestinian enclave, dismantling Hamas governance infrastructure and “managing and mobilizing” the civilian population - with captive recovery coming last.
According to the Ynet report, the return of the captive has not featured among the regime’s central military objectives since the war began, despite public declarations that both defeating Hamas and rescuing the captives were official aims. 
“A few days after the attack, [Hamas leader] Yahya Sinwar offered to release the children, women and the elderly,” the Ynet investigation stated.
However, “Israel rushed to invade Gaza and no one thought about the hostages”, a security source told the outlet, criticising the government’s early decision-making.