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Hamas’s hostage circus exposes the hypocrisy of Gaza’s victim narrative

By:

Or Yissachar

4 Feb 2025

Commentary
About The Authors

Or Yissachar

Director of Research


With these outrageous images, Hamas may have helped Israel convince world leaders to have its back to remove Hamas’ terrorist regime from power in the Gaza Strip.

The gruesome PR spectacles produced by Hamas during the release of Israeli hostages have been offering the world a glimpse into the core elements of the Gaza conflict. The true nature of what is often described as a mere territorial dispute, or careless and pointless warfare, is now being exposed as a deep-seated clash between civilizations.


Hamas’ propaganda machine thus resurfaced the central role of information, image, and symbolism in communicating this clash and highlighted how it stretches far beyond the sandy, dusty battlefield. In a way, it also inadvertently helped Israel make its case in its demand to end the war with nothing short of a clear, victorious result.


Over the past fortnight, Hamas released several batches of Israeli hostages in exchange for the release from Israeli prisons of notorious terrorists as part of its commitment to the deal mediated by the United States. Evidently, the terror group was not going to acknowledge loss, concede a compromise, and quietly hand out hostages.


That would be uncharacteristic of insurgent strongmen in an honor-bound…

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