Hamas took advantage of the first stage of the truce to make a show of force that left a bitter taste for the Israelis. Fragile, the agreement is nevertheless respected.
Joy, relief, deliverance… On January 19, these feelings greet, at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv and throughout Israel, the release of Romi Gonen (24 years old), Emily Damari (28 years old) and Doron Steinbrecher (31 years), kidnapped on October 7, 2023 at the Nova music festival for the first, in the kibbutz of Kfar Aza for the other two, after 471 days of detention by the group Palestinian Islamist Hamas. The happiness is all the deeper because the captives seem, at first glance, in good health.
The medical authorities at Sheba Hospital, in the Tel HaShomer district of Ramat Gan, where they were received in the evening, confirmed this, indicating that their condition made it possible to postpone the conduct of the first medical examinations and let them concentrate on reunions with loved ones. “With immense relief, I can tell you that Emily is now in much better health than we expected,” adds Mandy Damari, who joined her daughter at the hospital. The first words to families, the desire to reassure, the need not to “taint” reunions can lead to obscuring painful realities experienced in captivity. On January 21, Israeli media will report on their extreme conditions of detention: they would have been used as human shields during travel, they would have been forced to undergo medical operations without anesthesia… Furthermore, the testimony of the first released hostages does not augurs little or nothing for the suffering that other captives may have endured, not counting those who died in captivity.
The Israelis tried to downplay the “show of force” dimension of the Hamas operation.
Hostages: Hamas essential?
Because this first implementation of the agreement concluded on January 15 between Israel and Hamas through Egypt, Qatar and the United States (their two administrations, the outgoing and the new) is also an operation of communication. Before having to answer – in the eyes of international opinion at least – for the suffering and injuries inflicted on some of its hostages who will be released in the coming weeks, Hamas hastened to exploit the difference in treatment – apparently proven, notably in the head of the former MP member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Khalida Jarrar – reserved for some of the Palestinian prisoners released the same day by Israel (90 in total). “The restitution of the three prisoners (Editor’s note: in the understanding of the Hamas militiamen) in full health, mental and physical, while our prisoners, men and women, showed signs of neglect and exhaustion, shows the difference between the values of the resistance and the fascism of the (Israeli) occupation,” commented Hamas on January 20. The latter, author of the October 7 pogrom, giving a moral lesson to the State of Israel, even if the way in which he treats his detainees raises questions, this clearly demonstrates that the release of the hostages is used for purposes of communication.
-In the symbolism of the first stage of the application of the agreement to release the hostages and respect a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, the most important thing is not there. It is in the “show of force” that Hamas wanted to present when the hostages were handed over to Red Cross personnel. The presence of militiamen in new numbers, uniforms and weapons, in the middle of an excited crowd on Saraya Square, west of Gaza City, an area in the north of the Palestinian territory supposed to have been “cleaned” by the Israeli army , certainly aims to send a message: the Palestinian Islamist group is still there after fifteen months of intensive IDF offensive, including in the heart of the Gaza Strip, and remains an essential player in any initiative in the territory. Hear: Operation Iron Swords which aimed to eradicate Hamas did not achieve its objectives.
Israeli consensus
The Israelis tried to downplay the “show of force” dimension of the Hamas operation, emphasizing, through aerial photos of the January 19 gathering, that the Palestinian crowd on Saraya Square was small overall and that the men of Hamas, not so numerous and not so in control of the situation, had struggled to contain the clashes. Nevertheless, this staging leaves a bitter taste in the population and leaders of Israel. This observation is not likely to threaten the broad consensus which prevails in society to continue the application of the agreement of January 15. As proof, even the most radical ministers of the Netanyahu government and those most opposed to the arrangement with Hamas are careful not to threaten the sustainability of the government at this stage. The Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the two other representatives of Jewish Force within the government have certainly resigned. But they assured that they did not want to work towards the downfall of the executive. The other far-right figure, Bezalel Smotrich, finance minister and leader of the Religious Zionism party, criticized the agreement, but decided to stay in government.
The communication battle between Israel and Hamas, moreover, did not hinder the application of the agreement. Ninety Palestinian prisoners, mainly women and children, were released in accordance with the arrangements to be respected by the Israeli side. And nearly 1,000 humanitarian aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on January 21, Gazans rediscovering for the first time in fifteen months, apart from the short first truce observed in November 2023, a daily life without bombings, but still in great deprivation. If Hamas respects the agreement, Gazans will be able to return to the north of the territory, the Israeli army has promised. However, the next stages of the process, including a new release of hostages scheduled for January 25, will each time constitute a test of the goodwill of the parties, and a test for the families of the hostages in the uncertainty of the fate of theirs.
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