Hamas used the occasion of the handover of four hostages on Saturday to showcase its sense that it has achieved victory over Israel.
The terrorist group 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 their own narrative, not one that meshes with the reality of October 7, when Hamas massacred civilians. However, it is the way the terror organization sees itself.
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 on Saturday was supposed to portray the organization as strong. After 15 months of war, the group is attempting to show that it has emerged from the rubble and is in complete command and control in Gaza.
This is despite Israel’s assessments over the last year that up to 20,000 Hamas members have been eliminated in the Strip. Over the past year, the IDF has claimed numerous successes over the October 7 perpetrators, including long lists of Hamas commanders eliminated. Throughout the war, the IDF has claimed that most of its company, battalion, and brigade commanders in Gaza have been killed.
Saturday’s spectacle is aimed at showing that Hamas is the one 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.
This was not the chaos of the handover the week before when people pushed in toward the Red Cross vehicles. Instead, it was orderly this time. Hamas had dozens of armed men in tactical military-style vests and the trademark green headbands that its operatives wear.
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 with flags present as well.
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, made to stand on stage and then asked to 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 them or people standing on them.
The goal of this ceremony is to showcase Hamas’s sense of victory, but it will also be felt keenly in Israel as a humiliation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 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 on Saturday is a military affair. It kidnapped the women from Nahal Oz base on October 7, 2023. The women were sheltering in an area that was supposed to be safe. They were part of an IDF unit of women lookout observers who were unarmed and had been stationed on the border.
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. In addition, it took many hours before the surviving women IDF soldiers were actually kidnapped on October 7.
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 18 and 19 years old when they were abducted from Nahal Oz on October 7, have been common sights across Israel. The image 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.
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 Megidish 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 being held in Gaza.
These images have been seen worldwide. Hamas knows this, and it staged the spectacle in Gaza on Saturday to exploit these images as much as possible. Hamas also wanted to show that it can deliver the women soldiers back to Israel in a ceremony in which the women appear healthy.
This is all part of Hamas propaganda designed to showcase the terror group as if it were 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, the terrorist group is trying to show that all is well in Gaza. This is Hamas’s “total victory” moment.