For the second time in per week, Hamas used the handing over of hostages to the Pink Cross to undertaking a picture that it’s nonetheless a robust power in command of the Gaza Strip, regardless of 15 months of a warfare that has killed hundreds of its fighters and civilians, and lowered cities to rubble.
The handover of 4 hostages on Saturday was an much more performative stunt than the one final Sunday, when three different feminine hostages had been launched.
On Saturday, Hamas arrange a stage in Palestine Sq. within the heart of Gaza Metropolis — an space devastated by Israel’s bombing marketing campaign and floor incursion. The stage held a banner bearing a message in Hebrew: “Zionism won’t win.” A whole lot of masked, uniformed fighters and civilians gathered close by.
On the stage, Hamas held a signing ceremony between one in every of its members and a consultant of the Pink Cross, which later obtained the 4 hostages.
The hostages, all troopers who had been lookouts at a base on the Gaza border and kidnapped from there on Oct. 7, 2023, through the Hamas-led assault on Israel, arrived to the sq. in a convoy of midsize sport utility autos. They had been led onto the stage, clothed in military-style fatigues, which appeared supposed to make a degree that these hostages had been troopers, not civilians.
Militants holding costly cameras adopted the hostages, more likely to make a video that will likely be printed on social media.
Onstage, the hostages smiled and waved on the cheering and whistling onlookers as gun-toting Hamas militants stood beside them.
The Pink Cross mentioned it will not touch upon ongoing operations.
Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the chief spokesman of the Israeli navy, mentioned Hamas proved its “cruelty” throughout Saturday’s handover, which he described as a “cynical ceremony.”
Israeli officers have mentioned Hamas has compelled hostages to smile and wave as a part of a propaganda effort geared toward conveying the message that the group was treating its captives nicely. Former hostages, nonetheless, have reported being abused, together with one who spoke publicly about being sexually assaulted and tortured.
