Hamas wouldn’t go through all the trouble to capture them if they weren’t willing to free them for a deal. They’re not excusing it, just explaining why militarily it would be dumb for Hamas to let go of their only leverage without a better deal. They let go of a bunch and it only led to a couple days before the massacre began again and Israel basically recaptured about the same amount of people they exchanged. When is the next chance they’ll get to have hostages for negotiation again? October 7th was an unprecedented attack that probably won’t happen again for a long time.