TEL AVIV, Israel — This past weekend, as Hamas paraded a trio of emaciated Israeli hostages who were about to be freed following more than a year of captivity in the Gaza Strip, the militant group seized the chance to direct a personal gibe at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
With news cameras in southern Gaza lingering on a knot of masked fighters, a Hebrew-language banner was clearly visible behind them, superimposed with the prime minister’s face.
“Total victory,” it read — mocking the refrain often invoked by the Israeli leader during nearly 16 months of brutal warfare in the coastal enclave, now paused by a truce.
EMBARKING ON A round of highly charged new talks over the next phase of the cease-fire, both Hamas and Israel are trying to paint themselves as victors, even as Gaza lies in ruins.
While Hamas sustained heavy blows in a withering campaign of Israeli bombardment coupled with a months-long ground offensive, some observers believe the group is scoring significant propaganda points — because it can point to its mere survival as a triumph.
HAMAS FIGHTERS largely vanished from public view during the Israeli offensive. But throngs of them wearing crisp uniforms and bristling with weaponry have been a prominent feature at hostage-handover ceremonies that have been periodically taking place since the cease-fire began last month.
Sixteen Israelis and dual nationals, plus five Thai citizens, have been freed in five separate batches, the latest of them Saturday, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
“Absolutely, it’s theatrical,” Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a senior nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council, said of the elaborate displays by the group during hostage releases. “It’s to show the world that Hamas is still relevant, still exists.”
IN WASHINGTON last week, President Trump and Netanyahu — the first foreign leader to be received at the White House since Trump took office for the second time — sought to present a united front in rejecting any role for Hamas in postwar Gaza.
But their joint appearance was dominated — hijacked, even — by Trump’s abrupt and startling declaration that the United States would take “ownership” of the territory and preside over the creation of resort-style development — a “Riviera of the Middle East,” as the onetime real-estate developer put it.
THE WAR THAT Hamas ignited with its deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel — in which its fighters killed about 1,200 people and seized some 250 hostages — brought enormous suffering to Gaza. By the count of Palestinian health officials, the confirmed death toll in the territory exceeds 48,000, with thousands more corpses buried in rubble. Gaza’s Health Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
