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The capture of dozens of Israeli soldiers and civilians by Hamas militants has stirred Israeli emotions more viscerally than any crisis in the country’s recent memory. It has also presented an impossible dilemma for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government. The Islamic militant group’s 2006 kidnapping of a sole young conscript, Gilad Shalit, consumed Israeli society for years, prompted Israel to bombard the Gaza Strip and release over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit’s freedom. This time, Gaza’s Hamas rulers have seized dozens of Israeli civilians and soldiers as part of a multipronged, shock attack.