There are two objectives in phase two of Israel’s war on Gaza, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: the destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas, as well as the release of the captives, some of which were seen in a Hamas video on Monday. But how will the hostages affect Israel's calculus, and how much of a priority are they?

In this episode: 

• Haggai Matar (@Ha_Matar), +972 Executive Director
• Oren Ziv (@OrenZiv_), +972 News Journalist and Photographer

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Fahrinisa Campana, Miranda Lin and our host Natasha del Toro, in for Malika Bilal. Miranda Lin fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik and Adam Abou-Gad is our engagement producer.

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio.

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