The “hostage deals,” which are taking place as part of the ceasefire agreement with the terrorist organization Hamas, could have been conducted in a modest and discreet manner that would honor the released living and dead hostages, and their families. And perhaps, if you can even say such a thing, it would also cast Hamas in a slightly more “humane” light, at least to the blind eyes of target audiences in the Arab and international arenas, to whom Hamas directs its cynical and despicable propaganda displays. But when it comes to Hamas, even the hostage handover proceedings, which unfortunately also included a process of handing over the bodies of dead hostages last week, take place as a cynical and horrifying media “carnival” according to carefully planned and detailed rules of ceremony, reflecting the terrorist movement’s murderous ideology that boasts of its “achievements” and that seeks to glorify and praise the distorted values of what it calls “resistance.”
A media analysis of the living and dead hostage handover ceremonies in the Hamas-affiliated media outlets actually makes it possible to quite easily outline the guidelines of the ceremony’s set of rules as determined by Hamas’s “Ceremonies Committee” and according to which Hamas’s meticulous “handover ceremonies” are conducted – ceremonies that, despite ourselves, we have become addicted to and that flood us each time with mixed feelings of joy, immense pain, and copious rage and disgust.
The media “carnival” of the living and dead hostage handovers always begins with introductory coverage of the preliminary preparations for the handover ceremony to emphasize its importance and meticulous management. This is the point where Hamas’s film and documentation crew makes sure that no detail is overlooked – the location, the ceremony stage with the displays on it, including the ceremony’s key messages that appear in three languages: Arabic, English, and Hebrew (rife with spelling and wording errors). The messages and slogans Hamas uses are taken from the terrorist movement’s key messages of the “victory” narrative. The central horrifying message, which appeared on a giant poster on the ceremony stage, above the coffins of the late Shiri Bibas and her young children, Kfir and Ariel, and of Oded Lifshitz, was: “Murdered by the war criminal Netanyahu with fighter jet missiles.” A message in this spirit in Hebrew was also included in the announcement that was attached to each of the victims’ coffins along with their photo, the date of their abduction, and the date of their “murder” by the “occupation.” We all already know the horrifying truth: Shiri and her young children were brutally murdered in captivity, shortly after they were abducted. The vile murderers were not satisfied with cold-blooded murder; they also mutilated their bodies to match the bodies’ condition to the cause of death that would be presented almost a year later, during the dead hostage handover procession: “murdered by the occupation”.
Hamas also carefully selects the location of the “handover ceremonies.” They were intended to demonstrate both full control of strategic points in the Strip and to pay tribute to the legacy of the movement’s symbols, led by the architect of the murderous terrorist attack, Yahya Sinwar, whose compound near his home also served as a hostage handover location. An integral part of the ceremony is dedicated to exhibiting the presence of an armed parade, which includes dozens of masked terrorists, in full military attire. The militants scattered around the ceremony complex are documented taking pictures with the audience that comes to watch the ceremony, especially with the children and toddlers of Gaza, who are never absent from the ceremonies. They are documented and photographed next to their admired militants, wearing the military wing’s headband.
The presence of the numerous armed men at the ceremony serves Hamas for two ideological goals: First, to convey a clear and resounding message that Israel’s claims about the destruction of Hamas and disbanding its combat battalions are false, and that Hamas, with its military wing, is fully functional from a military aspect and is exercising complete sovereignty over the Gaza Strip. From Hamas’s perspective, this is “giving the finger” to anyone who thought that the long intensive war had defeated it militarily. Furthermore, Hamas is also ensuring that commanders in the military wing, who Israel announced had been eliminated, attend the ceremonies, to prove that this was a case of mistaken identity on Israel’s part. For example, at Keith Siegel’s release ceremony on February 1, 2025, Haitham Khawajari, commander of the Shati Battalion, was seen and documented walking among the militants present at the ceremony. The second goal, no less important from Hamas’s perspective, is to link its presence on the ground to its popularity and support among the Gazan people in order to gain additional legitimacy “points” in domestic and even Arab public opinion. But the militants have another significant role in the ceremony, and it is aimed at Israeli public opinion: Hamas wants to humiliate Israel and tarnish the IDF’s image as an invincible army. This is why the elaborate ceremony features armed men carrying IDF weapons, such as the Tavor, which was documented by one of the military wing members at the dead hostages handover ceremony last Thursday (and at Agam Berger’s handover ceremony to the Red Cross, a weapon was displayed that Hamas claims was taken from an IDF combat soldier). Gunmen from the “Shadow Unit,” which is responsible for transporting and securing the hostages, were also filmed making their rounds at the ceremony complex in Khan Younis, riding in a RAM truck that Hamas claims was taken from the “occupation” in a raid on the day of the October 7 murderous terrorist attack.
Hamas also made sure to document the presence of Gazan prisoners who were released in previous rounds and who were brought to the podium of honor at the dead hostages handover ceremony. Hamas considers the prisoners’ presence to be of great importance, since one of its key messages in the victory narrative is that the release of the prisoners was only possible thanks to the October 7 attack, Hamas’s steadfastness and refusal to yield to pressure in negotiations with Israel. This message also helps Hamas silence the voices of its domestic critics who believe that Hamas inflicted a catastrophe on the Gaza Strip.
Ironically and cynically, and most outrageously, Hamas’s show is primarily directed at the released hostages and, unfortunately, even at the dead ones. The production team ensures that each ceremony begins by documenting the transport of the hostages accompanied by armed men, wearing “hostage badges” and being brought to the ceremony stage where they are given signed release certificates in a folder with a photo, as well as “souvenirs and mementos” in a special package stamped with the symbol of Hamas’s military wing. Hamas’s ceremony guidelines also include strict requirements regarding the hostages’ appearance and clothing, ensuring that soldiers appear on the ceremony stage in military uniform. Even a bracelet in the colors of the Palestinian flag is worn by some of the hostages for photo purposes, as seen on Agam Berger’s wrist as she waved to the crowd. The strict staging instructions for the hostages continue on the ceremony stage as well. Before they leave the “stage of honor” and are handed over to the Red Cross representatives, the hostages are required to smile and wave to the camera and the Gazan audience, display their release certificates, and in some ceremonies, the hostages are instructed to deliver speeches that include messages of gratitude and appreciation to their captors for the “kind and compassionate treatment” and, of course, a message to the Israeli government that the only way to release the hostages is through Hamas’s cynical staged ceremonies. The handover of the hostages to the Red Cross effectively concludes the painstaking ceremony, but this is also the preferred time for Hamas media to post summary videos on its multiple channels of the “impressive” handover ceremony, while concurrently, horrifyingly cynical videos are posted with a montage of “magical moments” of the hostages during their captivity, such as the video of Sasha Troufanov spending quality time with a fishing rod in the sea, and a video of Keith Siegel delivering a message and blessing to his captors, against the backdrop of the pastoral landscape of the Gaza beach.
We all saw the bitter truth about what the hostages are enduring in captivity, during the shocking ceremony in which Eli Sharabi, Ohad Ben Ami, and Or Levi were handed over. It was impossible to ignore their sunken eyes, pallor, and emaciated appearance as they made their way to the ceremony stage like walking skeletons, not before they had also “played their part,” as the lead actors in the worst play in town.
Hamas never stops claiming that it is interested in a comprehensive “all-for-all” hostage-prisoner exchange, but the compensation Hamas demands not only includes the release of prisoners, but “the whole nine yards” and implementation of the second phase of the agreement that is supposed to enable its survival. This is why Hamas consistently works to make the handover ceremonies unbearable for Israel, and it will probably not stop doing so without an Israeli move that forces it to. At first glance, it seems to us that the set, the extras, the stage, and the slogans are the same in every handover ceremony. But in every ceremony, Hamas reveals a new “surprise,” which constitutes a new level of evil cynicism and cruelty. This is exactly what we saw during the release of the hostages last Saturday, when, to our astonishment, the main photographer of the Al-Qassam Brigades approached Omer Shem-Tov and instructed him to kiss the heads of the armed terrorists who were standing next to him on the ceremony stage in order to immortalize the embarrassing and humiliating moment – one that would be leveraged shortly thereafter on all of Hamas and Co.’s media channels. Omer’s forced kiss is a “frog” that many Israelis may be willing to swallow. This is undoubtedly a moment that elicits revulsion, but in these moments our thoughts are more focused on the expectation that the hostages will be handed over to our forces and begin the journey home to Israeli territory. But anyone who thought the ceremony was over after the hostages were handed over to the Red Cross “puppets” was wrong. Hamas prepared another “surprise” that surpassed all its predecessors on the scale of evil and cruelty. A video documenting the hostages Guy Gilboa and Evyatar David, sitting in a vehicle that took them near the ceremony stage to watch, with teary eyes, their friends being released. The car door opened in front of the ceremony stage and Guy and Evyatar were asked in Hebrew by one of the car’s occupants: “How are you feeling now?” This signals to them to convey a message to the government and beg for their release and an end to the terrible suffering they are enduring in captivity. At the end of the poignant message, the camera captures the car door closing.
Hamas is undoubtedly very well aware of what the Israeli public’s weak points are, and it will continue to target its soft underbelly using the strong card it holds: the living and dead hostages. The question that arises and becomes more acute in the wake of these vile ceremonies is why is it even important to focus on Hamas’s release performances, watch, and even analyze them? Should this surprise any of us? Of course not. Will “Hamas Productions Ltd.” continue to stage these performances in Gaza and “perfect” them with displays of evil and cruelty? As long as they have live and dead hostages in their possesion, of course they will. It seems that the immense importance of this is to sear it into our consciousness. But not with the narratives that Hamas wants to impress upon us, but rather with what we knew and suppressed, or perhaps even refused to brand onto our consciousness as a leadership and as a nation, in the many years leading up to the murderous attack. If these horrific ceremonies are burned into our consciousness and shake our fading memory, whenever we tend to forget who the enemy we face is and how we should treat him if we want to live, it may be possible to say that Hamas’s production and directing crews and the handover ceremonies they produced with advance planning and premeditation did indeed contribute to shaping our consciousness and to the long process of our national correction. Let us hope.
By: Avishai Karo
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the movement
