Hamas’s Hostage-Release Theater Aims to Show It’s Undefeated

Certificates, pendants and signing ceremonies are required
Trump raises possibility of clearing out the Gaza Strip

A Red Cross vehicle arrives in a square before the release of four Israeli hostages in Gaza City, on Jan. 25. — A Red Cross vehicle arrives in a square before the release of four Israeli hostages in Gaza City, on Jan. 25.
Photographer: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images

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By Ethan Bronner

January 26, 2025 at 2:01 PM UTC

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The four Israeli soldiers held by Hamas for 15 months display trilingual “release certificates,” bound like college diplomas. The camera shows each woman receiving a Hamas pendant and other souvenirs, as if ending a year-abroad program. At a rally in Gaza City, Red Cross officials are seated at tables for a signing ceremony, guarded by masked gunmen as patriotic music blares.

Israelis watching the proceedings on TV on Saturday were horrified. Military spokesman Daniel Hagari called it cruel and cynical, and Minister Orit Struck termed it sickening. Hamas, they said, was giving a final twist of the knife of psychological torture of the hostages, ages 19 and 20.