It was never about the hostages. It was always about expanding the criminal settler colony to become Greater Israel. Menachem Begin in 1977: "between the [Mediterranean] Sea and the Jordan River there shall only be Israeli sovereignty". Haim Rubinstein: Hamas had offered on October 9 or 10 to release all the civilian hostages in exchange for the IDF not entering the [Gaza] Strip, but the [Israeli] government rejected the offer.