Hamas used the occasion of the handover of four hostages on Saturday to showcase its sense that it has achieved victory over Israel.
Hamas put together a spectacle in Gaza designed to humiliate Israel and also to create an image of Hamas as a military organization conducting a military handover of prisoners of war. This is the Hamas narrative.
It is not a narrative that meshes with the reality of October 7, when Hamas massacred civilians and took many hostage. However, it is the way Hamas sees itself.
The Hamas ceremony in Gaza was supposed to portray the organization as strong and in control of Gaza. After fifteen months of war, the group is attempting to show that it has emerged from the rubble and is in complete command and control – despite Israel’s assessments over the last year showing that up to 20,000 Hamas members were eliminated in Gaza.
Over the past year, the IDF has claimed numerous successes over Hamas, including long lists of Hamas commanders eliminated. Throughout the war, the IDF has claimed that most of the Hamas company, battalion and brigade commanders in Gaza have been killed. The spectacle on Saturday is aimed at showing that it is Hamas in charge and the IDF is the one that was defeated.
The highly choreographed event included the four women hostages dressed in IDF-style uniforms that Hamas acquired for this occasion. The women were marched along to a stage in front of a crowd. However, this was not the chaos of the handover last week when people pushed in toward the Red Cross vehicles. Instead, this was orderly.
Hamas placed dozens of armed men in tactical military-style vests and the trademark green headbands that Hamas wears. In addition, a number of men from Palestinian Islamic Jihad were also at the ceremony, walking with the Hamas members. The Islamic Jihad men had different, black and gold headbands, and they had several of their own vehicles present as well, with flags.
On stage, Hamas had draped a large banner with Arabic and English writing. Among the statements were “The Palestinian fighters of freedom will always the victories [sic]” and “Palestine: The Victory of oppressed people vs. the Nazi Zionism.” Another slogan said that Gaza is the “graveyard” of Zionism and another message praised the October “Al Aqsa Flood” operation as a “revolution.”
The ceremony included the four women hostages; Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag, being made to stand on stage and walk down to the two waiting white Land Cruisers of the Red Cross. Unlike the last hostage exchange, the Hamas members and PIJ members had cleared a square so the vehicles could easily leave, without the crowds crushing the vehicles or people standing on them.
The goal of this ceremony is to showcase Hamas’ sense of victory but it will also be felt keenly in Israel as a humiliation.
Israel’s Prime Minister had promised “total victory” in Gaza. This is not a scene of total victory.
Having Israeli Jewish women soldiers paraded in front of a Hamas crowd is not a scene that has ever been witnessed in Israeli history. Never before have women IDF soldiers been kidnapped and held hostage. Never before have so many Jews been kidnapped from a country that has promised “never again.”
Hamas made it clear that this exchange was a military affair. They dressed the women in uniforms that Hamas acquired for this occasion. It’s not the first time they had done this, they had done it in at least one hostage video as well.
Hamas kidnapped the women from Nahal Oz base on October 7. The women were sheltering in an area that was supposed to be safe. They were part of an IDF unit of women observers who were unarmed and had been stationed on the border.
Many members of the unit, which is mostly women, were massacred. They had no real protection at the Nahal Oz base. The base was not designed to be able to withstand a mass assault of the type that Hamas conducted.
The realities of October 7
In addition, it took many hours before the surviving women IDF soldiers were actually kidnapped on October 7. The kidnapping was caught on video taken by Hamas members that was later recovered. It shows five of the women being kidnapped. However, two other members of the unit were also kidnapped alive.
Ori Megedish was rescued from Gaza in the first days of the ground offensive in late October. Noa Marciano was kidnapped alive but she was later killed near Shifa hospital.
Agam Berger, who was kidnapped alongside Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag, is still held in Gaza.
The images of these five women, who were eighteen and nineteen years old when they were kidnapped from Nahal Oz on October 7, have been common sights across Israel. The images of Naama Levy being pulled by her hair out of an IDF jeep that the Hamas members stole on October 7, has become one of the most jarring images of the war as well. These images have been seen worldwide. Hamas knows this and it staged the spectacle in Gaza to exploit these images as much as possible.
Hamas also wanted to show that it could deliver the women soldiers back to Israel in a ceremony in which the women appeared healthy. This is all part of the Hamas propaganda designed to showcase Hamas as if it is a normal organization.
In contrast to the images from October 7, of the women being roughly pushed and made to walk over gravel in bare feet, some of their faces and clothes bloodied, Hamas is trying to show that all is well in Gaza. This is Hamas’ “total victory” moment.
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