For the second time in a week, Hamas used the handing over of hostages to the Red Cross to project an image that it is still a powerful force in charge of the Gaza Strip, despite 15 months of a war that has killed thousands of its fighters and civilians, and reduced cities to rubble.

The handover of four hostages on Saturday was an even more performative stunt than the one last Sunday, when three other female hostages were released.

On Saturday, Hamas set up a stage in Palestine Square in the centre of Gaza City — an area devastated by Israel’s bombing campaign and ground incursion. The stage held a banner bearing a message in Hebrew: “Zionism will not win.” Hundreds of masked, uniformed fighters and civilians gathered nearby.

On the stage, Hamas held a signing ceremony between one of its members and a representative of the Red Cross, which later received the four hostages.

The hostages, all soldiers who were lookouts at a base on the Gaza border and abducted from there on October 7, 2023, during the Hamas-led attack on Israel, arrived to the square in a convoy of mid-size sport utility vehicles. They were led onto the stage, clothed in military-style fatigues, which seemed intended to make a point that these hostages were soldiers, not civilians.

Militants holding expensive cameras followed the hostages, likely to make a video that will be published on social media. Onstage, the hostages smiled and waved at the cheering and whistling onlookers as gun-toting Hamas militants stood beside them. The Red Cross said it would not comment on ongoing operations.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the chief spokesman of the Israeli military, said Hamas proved its “cruelty” during Saturday’s handover, which he described as a “cynical ceremony”.

Israeli officials have said Hamas has forced hostages to smile and wave as part of a propaganda effort aimed at conveying the message that the group was treating its captives well. Former hostages, however, have reported being abused, including one who spoke publicly about being sexually assaulted and tortured.

In a recent interview with an Israeli TV station, Chen Goldstein-Almog, an Israeli hostage released in November 2023, said that when she and her daughter, Agam, were let go, they were transferred to a Red Cross vehicle that was surrounded by a large crowd of people.

“I remember that Agam told me: ‘Mom, today we’re going to die,’” she said, recalling that moment. “It was terrifying until the end.”

In an interview after last Sunday’s release of hostages, Yves Daccord, the former director general of the Red Cross, said handoffs of hostages should occur in a quiet place, away from the public.

“In general, the ideal is without a crowd,” Daccord said. Releasing hostages at a large public gathering, he added, was laden with risks and unpredictability.

Israeli medical professionals advocating for hostages in Gaza warned that chaotic handoffs could trigger traumatic memories of the hostages’ first moments in Gaza, in which militants drove some of them through rowdy crowds.

“The release is reliving, to some extent, the kidnapping,” said Dr Hagai Levine, the head of the medical team with the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, an Israeli group.

Since the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel came into effect last Sunday, Hamas has worked hard to show that it remains the dominant Palestinian party in Gaza.

It is not clear how many fighters, police officers, bureaucrats and political leaders survived the war, but by showcasing the handovers in such a public way, Hamas made clear that it is still standing in parts of Gaza that were subjected to some of the most destructive bombing attacks of the war.

New York Times News Service