Hamas forces parting ‘gift bags’ on freed hostages as mementos of hellish captivity

Paper bags with Hamas’s armed wing logo said to contain pictures of the women from their time held in Gaza, official-looking ‘release papers’

This image grab from a handout video released by the Hamas terror group shows Israeli hostages Emily Damari (L) and Romi Gonen, receiving a package bearing the logo of Hamas's armed wing, as they sit in a Hamas vehicle before being handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip on January 19, 2025. (Screen capture: Hamas/AFP)
This image grab from a handout video released by the Hamas terror group shows Israeli hostages Emily Damari (L) and Romi Gonen, receiving a package bearing the logo of Hamas's armed wing, as they sit in a Hamas vehicle before being handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip on January 19, 2025. (Screen capture: Hamas/AFP)

The three Israeli women freed Sunday after 471 days held hostage in Gaza were sent home by Hamas with “gift bags” and “Palestine” lanyards in a choreographed handover seemingly designed by the terror group for propaganda purposes.

Inside the bags given to Emily Damari, 28, Romi Gonen, 24, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, were pictures of them in captivity and “certificates,” according to reports in Hebrew-language media.

Damari, Gonen and Steinbrecher were reunited with their families on Sunday following a highly fraught release out of Hamas hands in Gaza City, the first among 33 hostages who are meant to be set free in the coming six weeks under a deal that includes a pause in fighting, the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and increased fuel and aid deliveries for Gaza.

In videos released by the Israel Defense Forces and Hamas itself, the three are seen being given paper bags decorated with the logo of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing.

Other photos and videos show Damari posing as a masked man holds a folder with papers in Hebrew and Arabic containing personal information about her, including her hometown, her Israeli ID number, and where she was “arrested,” presumably referring to Damari’s abduction from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, 2023. The paper is signed by “al-Qassam Brigades Command.”

Damari, Gonen and Steinbrecher are also seen in a propaganda video released by Hamas following the handoff holding up the gilded folder, which has the al-Qassam logo on the outside and text reading “Al-Aqsa Flood Deal, al-Qassam Brigades” along with the year.

In the footage, a Red Cross official can be seen signing a similar-looking document in Arabic acknowledging receiving the hostages, and a masked Hamas man can be seen signing a “hand over certificate” in English with the names of Damari, Gonen and  Steinbrecher.

In video released by the IDF, the three can be seen still holding the bags after the Red Cross transferred them to Israeli hands for initial checks before being whisked to hospitals in Israel.

This image grab from a handout video released by the Hamas terror group shows Israeli hostages Emily Damari (L), Romi Gonen, center, and Doron Steinbrecher with bags and folders bearing the logo of Hamas’s armed wing, as they sit in a Hamas vehicle before being handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip on January 19, 2025. (Screen capture: Hamas/AFP)

Hebrew media reports indicated that the bags also contained pictures of the hostages in captivity, but those could not be seen in any of the images.

This image grab from a handout video released by the Hamas terror group shows Israeli hostages Emily Damari (L), Romi Gonen,center, and Doron Steinbrecher wearing “Palestine” lanyards as they sit in a Hamas vehicle before being handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip on January 19, 2025. (Screen capture: Hamas/AFP)

The bags, lanyards and documents all appeared to be part of a media campaign by Hamas aimed at lending the terror group’s abduction of civilians a veneer of legitimacy, in line with propaganda efforts during previous hostage releases.

In past cases, however, there have not been official-looking documents or signings, and it was unclear if they had any purpose other than attempting to validate their holding of the hostages.

Thousands of Gazans crowded the area where the handover was set to take place. Hamas gunmen appeared to briefly clear enough space for a table and chairs to be set up, indicating there had been plans for a more official-looking signing ceremony, but the forces appeared to be overwhelmed by the crowds, forcing a hectic and rushed handover.

People gather around a vehicle of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Saraya Square in western Gaza City for the handover of three Israeli hostages on January 19, 2025. (Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP)

There was no comment from Israeli authorities on the “gift” bags or other accessories foisted upon the freed hostages. In the past, Israel has decried propaganda efforts by Hamas and other Gazan terror groups as forms of psychological terror.

During an initial truce and hostage release in late November 2023, when 105 civilians were released, Hamas used the opportunity to show off its continued control of Gaza City, putting on carefully choreographed handovers that appeared designed to portray the hostages’ captors as kind, caring jailers maintaining friendly relationships with their hostages.

Hamas terrorists accompany newly released Israeli hostages before handing them over to the Red Cross in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on November 28, 2023. (Said Khatib / AFP)

In fact, freed hostages have described being subjected to sexual violence, torture, starvation, inhumane living conditions, psychological terror and other forms of torment while in captivity. Several hostages have been executed by their captors, according to the IDF.

In 2011, when soldier Gilad Shalit was exchanged for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, he was made to sit through an interview with a journalist before being handed over to Israel. Though the interview was conducted by Egyptian state television, it was also filmed on site by a masked member of Hamas’s armed wing.

Hamas is next slated to free hostages on Saturday, when four more women are set to be handed over.

Released hostages (L-R) Doron Steinbrecher, Emily Damari and Romi Gonen reunite with their mothers shortly after returning to Israel after 471 days in Hamas captivity in Gaza, January 19, 2025. (IDF)

All 33 hostages to be freed in the first phase of the deal are so-called humanitarian cases — women, children, men over 50, and ill or injured men. Most but not all of the 33 are believed to be alive.

Of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas during the October 7, 2023, invasion and massacre in southern Israel, 91 are now believed to remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.

A man walks past images of those held in Gaza at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv on January 19, 2025 (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered on Sunday from Gaza in a clandestine Israeli military operation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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