By Shahaf Segal

Israel views IDF soldiers as the nation's collective sons and daughters. While this may be a noble worldview, it also runs the risk of creating confusion over who is supposed to defend whom. Hamas maliciously takes advantage of this sentiment to employ it against Israel. 

The Israeli public has on multiple occasions pressured the government to rescue Israeli soldiers (and civilians) from enemy captivity at the cost of releasing scores of dangerous terrorists from prison. Israel historically yielded as if there was no alternative. However, we must remember that the release of prisoners is not the final “cost:” Israel pays that with the blood of its citizens. 

As a member of the Golani Reconnaissance Unit, where I served as a medic and sharpshooter, like many other soldiers I  endangered my life to protect civilians on the home front. That is how things should work: Soldiers should protect civilians.

During Operation Cast Lead (2008 – 2009), my comrade in arms, Staff-Sergeant Dvir Emanuelof and I were shot at by Hamas terrorists emerging from a tunnel in the Gaza Strip. The terrorists sought to kidnap Dvir: I ran toward him and opened fire in an attempt to save him. In the process, I sustained a severe bullet wound to my arm.

Dvir paid the ultimate price in defense of Israel. Despite my efforts, he did not survive the gunshot wound to his head.  I embarked on a five-year journey of extensive surgery and physical therapy to regain partial use of my arm. 

Soldiers are aware of the risks. We are willing to endanger and sacrifice ourselves for Israel and its people if necessary. Israel's government and society must remember this going forward. 

Hamas has maintained a long-standing strategy of kidnapping soldiers and using them as bargaining chips to secure the release of dangerous prisoners, many of whom have blood on their hands. 

Through this extortion, Hamas was able to secure the release of 1,027 terrorists in exchange for the release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011, who was held captive for over five years. One of those released was Yahya Sinwar, who now heads Hamas  Gaza. Sinwar's release is perhaps the most salient example of the dangers of Israel's willingness to save soldiers at the expense of civilians. 

The actual price of past prisoner releases has been intolerably high. According to various sources, between 40 to 80 percent of the prisoners released by Israel returned to active terrorism within our borders, leading to civilians and soldiers paying with their lives. 

Additional examples of convicted Hamas operatives released in 2011 include Ziad Awad, who shot and killed a police officer, Chief Superintendent Baruch Mizrahi, during a 2014 West Bank shooting. Mahmoud Kawasma, who was involved in the 2014 kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank, was another of those released in the Shalit deal.  

Now, Hamas is demanding the release of 1,111 security prisoners in exchange for the remains of Israeli MIAs Lt. Hadar Goldin and Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul (killed in Operation Protective Edge in 2014) and two Israeli civilians being held after entering Gaza. 

Israel must recognize that a prisoner release of this scale is no longer a feasible solution. 

When I insisted on joining a combat unit, my goal was to protect Israeli civilians. For this reason, I signed a document alongside other soldiers and officers, declaring my refusal to be released – dead or alive –  in exchange for terrorists. 

None of this is to say that Israel does not have a duty to work for the release of soldiers kidnapped by enemy forces. However, the right way to execute this obligation is to place conditions on Gaza's reconstruction. Israel has the power to pursue this struggle with determination and good judgment.  

The motto for this policy is simple: The restoration of Gaza must be subject to the  release of the captives.

While Israel is obligated to do its part to prevent any humanitarian disaster in Gaza, that does not mean large-scale reconstruction. Israel ensures that trucks with essential goods enter the Strip while working to help keep electricity and water supplies running. The rest must be conditioned on Hamas releasing the Israelis it holds captive. 

Israel is the powerful party in its relationship with Hamas, and this means it has alternatives to caving into dangerous extortion. If Israel proceeds to give in to demands for mass prisoner releases, it will perpetuate this never-ending cycle.

After Operation Cast Lead, Gaza was in desperate need  of reconstruction. Simultaneously, Hamas held Gilad Shalit captive. Israel missed the opportunity to negotiate Shalit's release in exchange for reconstruction, and instead agreed to the empty promise of a ceasefire. Within a short time,  Hamas received the freedom of its leaders, the reconstruction of Gaza, and hundreds more operatives who were released from Israeli prisons and joined the Hamas terror factory. Israel received more bloodshed, kidnapped soldiers, and outrageous demands.

It did not work before, and it will not work now as we once again walk off the battlefield, seemingly to return later. As it is written in Ecclesiastes,  “That which has been is that which shall be.” I call upon the Israeli government and the nation to break this paradigm, to stand firm, as our soldiers do, and put a new equation on the table: the reconstruction of Gaza for the freedom of our captives. Even at the price of renewed armed conflict.

Shahaf Segal was a sharpshooter and a combat medic in the elite anti-terror unit - Sayeret Golani. Shahaf was wounded in operation "Cast Lead" while saving his sergeant's body from being kidnapped through a terror tunnel into Gaza.. Read full bio here.