The families of hostages taken by Hamas are desperate – but can Israel get them back?

Liora and Yakov Argamani are desperately worried about their 26-year-old daughter, Noa. Harrowing footage appeared of her weeping as she pleaded “Don’t kill me” while being driven away on the back of a motorcycle by one of the Hamas gunmen who had brought carnage to Israel.

The Islamist fighters, who had swooped down on the Supernova music festival by paraglider, killed 260 people and abducted others. Noa’s boyfriend, Avi Natan, was seen being marched away from her, gripped tightly by his arms. A video of Noa, recorded inside Gaza, has since appeared on social media.

“She is an only child, a wonderful beautiful young woman. I am asking the people who have taken her to show some kindness, not to hurt her,” says Yakov Argamani.

Maya and Itay Regev are also among those missing. For their parents, Ilan and Mirit, every waking hour is filled with thoughts of their daughter and son. But they refuse to give in to despair, remaining hopeful that their children will safely return.

The Regevs want to stress that all diplomatic paths should be followed to get hostages out of Gaza before Israel’s ground offensive into the territory gets under way, and they want other countries in the region to help. “I hope we grasp every opportunity offered: if other governments – Qatar, Egypt – can assist, then we must get that assistance,” says Ilan Regev.

But when asked about Qatari mediation over the release of hostages, Amichai Chikli, an Israeli government minister, can hardly contain himself: “Qatar’s the worst, they’re responsible for Hamas; they’ll have no part in what happens here.”

Nearly 200 people from Israel – mostly civilians, ranging in age from babies to the elderly, and some of whom are disabled – were taken during the brutal raid by Hamas on southern Israel.

The astonishing failure of intelligence that left these people vulnerable to capture, the abuse some of them appeared to have suffered, and trepidation about their fate have led to ringing condemnation of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government by some of their families.

They demand answers about how the disastrous lapse took place, and what is being done to bring their relatives and friends home, given the ferocious violence about to be unleashed when the ground offensive into Gaza begins.

Minimising the chances of the kidnap victims being killed in crossfire when the land invasion starts will be a severe challenge for the Israeli military.

Intelligence indicates that the hostages are being held in different locations, with many thought to be in the elaborate complex of tunnels under Gaza. Clearing large sections of the underground passageways would be an essential part of a successful military mission, but the hostages could effectively become human shields for Hamas.

Israeli forces have been carrying out probing operations into Gaza in order to gather information. The bodies of some of the abducted have been recovered close to the border; they are believed to belong to those who did not survive the injuries inflicted.

Israel has demanded that the International Red Cross be allowed to check on the wellbeing of the captives. This demand has been rejected by Hamas, who claim that continuing airstrikes make it too dangerous. In reality, Hamas wants to ensure that the locations in which they are being held remain secret.

It is clear that International interlocutors will be needed if the hostages are to be returned. Qatar has been mooted as a leading candidate. The Gulf state is one of the biggest backers of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has close ties with Hamas. The Brotherhood is one of the largest funders of Hamas, and the group’s political leadership, along with its head, Ismail Haniyeh, is based in Doha.

While Qatar officially denies supporting Hamas, a previous emir of the Gulf state, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, became the first Arab leader in years to visit the besieged Gaza Strip, travelling there with his wife Sheikha Mozah in 2012.

All this gives Qatar leverage in the current situation. But the mood among some members of the hierarchy in Israel, which has in the past facilitated money from Doha going into Gaza, is that Qatar is the problem and not the answer.

Echoing this, Chikli says: “Don’t be fooled by Qatar: they pretend just to build nice hotels, but in fact they sustain killers like Hamas.” The minister for diaspora, addressing journalists in the border city of Sderot with a pistol stuck in his belt, continued: “We’ll get our people back, but we can’t let terrorists gain from savagely assaulting and kidnapping people.”

Israel has, in the past, released large numbers from jails in detainee exchanges. The return of the soldier Gilad Shalit, after five years and four months of captivity in Gaza, was agreed in exchange for the release of 1,027 prisoners.

One of those freed, after 22 years of incarceration, was Yahya Sinwar. He has risen to become Hamas’s deputy head. Israel claims that Sinwar is the “face of evil” who was behind last weekend’s raid, and has declared that he will be hunted down and killed.

Doha is said to have mooted a possible exchange of the women and children held by Hamas for 39 Palestinian women and children in Israeli jails, as a starting point for a deal. But Israeli government officials say that a detainee swap is off the table this time.

The hostages will be among the urgent issues to be discussed by Joe Biden when he arrives in Israel on Wednesday. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is reported to have asked Qatar to intercede with Hamas. Washington is said to be looking at a deal under which the kidnapped civilians are freed in return for humanitarian aid going into Gaza.

Different Hamas officials have offered different conditions for releasing the detainees, including the freeing of 6,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israel and the ending of airstrikes. In one of the latest pronouncements, made through its Iranian allies, the group has said that foreign nationals who were taken may be freed.

Countries whose citizens are being held in Gaza may find the offer tempting. But for Israeli allies such as the US, Britain and other European states to secure the return of their own citizens while those of Israel continue to linger in captivity would not be a good look.

Israeli officials say Hamas is deliberately sending vague and contradictory messages.

“I believe nobody in the country knows specifically what they want except the smashing of the state of Israel,” says Ory Slonim, a veteran hostage negotiator advising the Israeli government. He does not think Israel would agree to a prisoner swap. “These are not prisoners of war, they are just people who are hostages, and one should not have to pay a price for their release,” he says.

Hamas planning documents found in one of the raided Israeli villages reveal that some units had specific orders to take hostages. The group is fully aware of the powerful impact the issue is having within Israel and internationally. It has released a video of a woman being held captive inside Gaza in which she is seen being treated for an injured arm.

In the 78-second footage, the 21-year-old French-Israeli Mia Schem says in Hebrew, to sounds of explosions in the background: “At the moment I am in Gaza. They are taking care of me, everything is OK. I just ask that I am returned as fast as possible to my family, to my parents, and to my siblings. Please get us out of here as quickly as possible.”

Schem was also at the Supernova festival. Her mother, Kerem Schem, said at a press conference in Israel on Tuesday: “I am begging the world to bring my baby back home. She only went to a festival party to have some fun, and now she’s in Gaza, and she’s not the only one.

“There were many children who went to this party. There are many babies, children and old people, and Holocaust survivors, who were kidnapped, whose houses were burned. This is a crime against humanity, and we should all gather and stop this terror and bring everybody back home.”

While Yakov Argamani and his wife are distraught about their daughter, they also understand the suffering taking place in Gaza. “We need to act with sensitivity – they also have mothers who are crying, the same as we are doing,” he wants to point out.

Families of the captives have increasingly voiced their anger at the Netanyahu administration. When they recently met with officials in Tel Aviv, chants of “The government is blowing up its own citizens” began. Protesters have gathered across the street from the military headquarters to wave flags and shout “Bring them home.”

Liora Argamani wants to know why the music festival was allowed to take place so close to the border. “I know that the party had a permit, and cannot understand how this has happened – how the police would allow a party to take place so close to Gaza. How could something like this happen? Hamas could hear there was a party nearby,” she says.

Many of the kidnappings took place in the area around Sderot. The city’s 30,000 residents have now been evacuated. Max Dorfmann, whose cousin David is one of the missing, was about to depart to safer parts with his family. “We want to come back here and live, we want David to come back here to live. I know that we have to go into Gaza, but the government doesn’t need to show how tough we are by going in too soon. We must get these people free before we do that – otherwise it’ll be too late,” he says.

Those who were kidnapped, however, remain highly valuable bargaining chips for Hamas, and are likely to be held as one of the final gambits by the group’s leadership.

“Hamas might well hope that having so many hostages could be a way of stopping Israel attacking,” says a senior European diplomat. “But that is not going to work. There’s a huge effort to try and find a solution, with lots of countries involved. But we really don’t know what’s going to happen; we don’t know how bad it’ll be.”