Handing over the hostages - World - Al-Ahram Weekly

Al-Ahram Weekly

04-02-2025

The careful curation by Hamas of the handovers of the Israeli hostages has shown its understanding of their value as a form of soft power
The Palestinian resistance has transformed the exchange of hostages after the ceasefire and hostage-exchange deal between Israel and Hamas into another form of resistance.
The vehicle is the imagery of the handover of the hostages to the Red Cross. Hamas' careful preparation of the location and setting of this, and its curation of the Hebrew and Arabic military images visible during the handover, deliver significant symbolic and emotive meanings.
Its mastery of modern digital technology augments both the appeal and the power of the images and the impacts of their messages for diverse audiences. Some of these are addressed to Palestinian audiences, though many are clearly also addressed to the Israelis and the Western powers, above all Washington, Israel's main military and political backer that has been long set on helping the occupying power erase the Palestinian cause.
According to analysts, the handover of the fourth batch of hostages at the beginning of February projected an image of enduring resilience, conveying the message that Hamas in Gaza remains a force that cannot be overlooked.
Senior officers from Hamas' military wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, took charge of handing over a dual US-Israeli national and an Israeli national to the Red Cross amidst a large gathering of Palestinian civilians with a cordon of dozens of Al-Qassam fighters to secure the area where the exchange took place.
A platform had been erected at the centre, with its backdrop featuring a large picture of late Al-Qassam Brigades commander Mohamed Deif alongside the phrase 'Zionism will not prevail.' Next to that was the emblem of Israeli intelligence's Unit 8200. Deif had survived at least seven Israeli targeted assassination operations over the past quarter of a century.
The resistance had arranged for the third handover to take place in front of the home of late Hamas leader Yahya Al-Sinwar. Al-Sinwar had also defied numerous targeted assassinations. The message of steadfastness was clear, as was the implication that, despite his death, the resistance's operational capacities remain intact.
Each handover has been introduced using different elements to demonstrate the dynamism of the resistance. Regional and international satellite TV stations have competed to cover these landmark exchanges, and it has been crucial to optimise the regional and international media to achieve several objectives.
In addition to affirming its resilience in the face of one of the world's best-equipped armies, the exchanges have also driven home the evident reality that the genocidal war that Israel has unleashed on Gaza since 7 October 2023 had failed to achieve its stated objective of eliminating the resistance. The moonscape of mass destruction that can be seen extending beyond the hostage handover platform in the images underscores the magnitude of the indiscriminate brutality of that aggression.
If the scenes of the handovers and the return of hundreds of Palestinian political prisoners have offered solace and some reassurance to Palestinians after having endured so much devastation and loss of life, the messages were also in part addressed to Israeli society.
They said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's continuous evasion of ceasefire and hostage-exchange initiatives and proposals so he could perpetuate the war, had failed to bring the hostages home. Nor had he made Israel safer. In the end, he was forced to negotiate with the resistance.
The attention that Hamas dedicated to semiotic details reflects an understanding of their value as a form of soft power as a foreign policy tool and to rally support regionally and internationally.
This has become more crucial than ever, given how Israeli blows against Hizbullah and Iran have severed logistical and military support from Gaza, while vital humanitarian support had been severed before this due to the Occupation's closure of the Rafah Crossing.
Another aim of the resistance has been to refute the Israeli propaganda machine's distorted stereotypes of it that are generally picked up and disseminated by the Western media. The resistance scored another success here as well.
The imagery made it clear that resistance members are far from being a cult of crazed extremists, driven by a thirst for violence and spurning civilised life. Instead, we see a sedate and orderly handover of the released hostages whose health and wellbeing has contrasted with the frail state of the Palestinian detainees released from Israel's prisons.
Perhaps more importantly, we see scenes of civilians cheering the resistance fighters and mingling with them during the handovers, underscoring the deep connection between the resistance and ordinary people.
Such scenes are a potent reminder that the resistance members come from people that have suffered decades of an inhumane foreign occupation. Here is the tangible rebuttal of Israeli and Western propaganda that would have us believe that the resistance is alien to the surrounding civilian society in order to justify bombing the whole of Gaza for a year and a half.
The Palestinian resistance's sophisticated media messaging during the handovers transcends geographical, linguistic, and cultural boundaries. It helps reshape misleading impressions of the resistance, counteracting the ubiquitous Israeli propaganda and reminding the world that resistance is the right of a people under occupation.
It contributes to building support for the Palestinian cause while vindicating the protesters at US and other Western universities who have persisted in demonstrating their support and sympathy for the Palestinian people despite efforts to suppress them.
One measure of the resistance's success is to be found in the reactions of the Israeli Occupation authorities. It has thrown them into confusion, deepened divisions among them, and even caused delays in the handover of Palestinian political prisoners and hostages.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 6 February, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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