Emaciated and disoriented, three Israeli hostages freed in Gaza on Saturday were forced by their Hamas captors to speak on stage, in the latest of the increasingly familiar handover ceremonies.
Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy were led on to a makeshift stage in the central Gaza city of Deir el-Balah and asked questions by a masked militant in Hebrew on a microphone in front of watching crowds, before being handed over to the Red Cross.
Ben Ami, wearing a brown sweater and trousers with dark glasses, looked pale, needing support as he was led from the stage to three awaiting Red Cross SUVs, an AFP journalist reported.
Eli Sharabi, also wearing the same brown uniform, was almost unrecognisable from the amount of weight lost in captivity.
Or Levy, dressed in darker, heavier clothes and also stick-thin, appeared distressed as he was compelled to speak.
On completing the choreographed interviews, the Hamas fighters broke into chants of Allahu Akbar (God is greatest).
Before the exchange, hundreds of Hamas fighters and onlookers gathered in the central Gaza city, projecting enthusiastically triumphant scenes despite the devastation wrought on the Palestinian territory during more than a year of war.
A banner across the edge of the platform erected for the exchange declared “total victory” for Hamas in Hebrew and bore images of destroyed and rusted Israeli military vehicles.
A picture of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, dejected with his palm to his cheek was shown in the centre of the destruction.
– Flowers and petals –
The release in Dier el-Balah was the fifth since the start of the January 19 ceasefire and, unlike previous exchanges in the north and south of Gaza, the destruction of war in the Palestinian territory was largely absent from Hamas’s careful staging.
A four-floor villa, its balconies lined with onlookers, and other intact buildings could be seen behind the stage, which was flanked by the movement’s green flags, along with pictures of killed commanders and leaders.
On a row of Hamas’s white pickups next to the stage, fighters displayed the group’s heavy weaponry, including rocket-propelled-grenades, sniper rifles and large machine guns.
Exultant martial music blared from loudspeakers around the platform.
Scores of armed men, masked and wearing Hamas’s distinctive green headbands, formed a cordon in the city to control onlookers around the open area where the militant group had erected a makeshift stage for the swap.
A source from Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, told AFP 200 fighters were present at the handover.
“Residents were allowed to attend the event, however are limited to a certain location to assure no confusion or chaos on site,” the source added on condition of anonymity.
Crowds, modest compared to the handovers in the first week of the truce, gathered in rows three or four people deep around the cordon, while other onlookers clambered on a nearby advertising billboard for a better look at the hostages.
A woman carrying a basket of flowers, and followed by half a dozen young girls in traditional Palestinian dress, scattered colourful petals over the fighters and onlookers.
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