Emaciated and disoriented, three Israeli hostages freed in Gaza on Saturday were forced by their Hamas captors to speak on stage, in the latest of the increasingly familiar handover ceremonies. Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy were led on to a makeshift stage in the central Gaza city of Deir el-Balah and asked questions by a masked militant in Hebrew on a microphone in front of watching crowds, before being handed over to the Red Cross.
Ben Ami, wearing a brown sweater and trousers with dark glasses, looked pale, needing support as he was led from the stage to three awaiting Red Cross SUVs, an AFP journalist reported.
Eli Sharabi, also wearing the same brown uniform, was almost unrecognisable from the amount of weight lost in captivity. Or Levy, dressed in darker, heavier clothes and also stick-thin, appeared distressed as he was compelled to speak. On completing the choreographed interviews, the Hamas fighters broke into chants of Allahu Akbar God is greatest.
Before the exchange, hundreds of Hamas fighters and onlookers gathered in the central Gaza city, projecting enthusiastically triumphant scenes despite the devastation wrought on the Palestinian territory during more than a year of war. A banner across the edge of the platform erected for the exchange declared "total victory" for Hamas in Hebrew and bore images of destroyed and rusted Israeli military vehicles.
A picture of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, dejected with his palm to his cheek was shown in the centre of the destruction. The release in Dier el-Balah was the fifth since the start of the January 19 ceasefire and, unlike previous exchanges in the north and south of Gaza, the destruction of war in the Palestinian territory was largely absent from Hamas's careful staging.
