The Gaza war is paused, but Israel and Hamas keep up a fierce battle of optics over hostage releases

LONDON (AP) — Arbel Yehoud is achingly close to freedom, but her face is a study of shadow and terror. She is dwarfed by dozens of masked Hamas fighters — and beyond them, a heaving mob of chanting men who surround her and fill the frame. In the next, Yehoud looks up at her captors, pleading. But video suggests they’re on the edge themselves, barely able to hold back the people impeding Yehoud’s dash to safety under the terms of a ceasefire deal.

Cut to photos of her friends and family in Israel, watching the handover live — hands over their mouths, breathless. Yehoud makes it into waiting vehicles, and then to Israel. Cue the government’s images of her joyous reunion with her parents.

The visuals out of Israel and Gaza during recent hostage-for-prisoner swaps were part of a choreographed battle of optics waged in parallel to the 16-month ground war between Israel and Hamas. Each side uses the light and shadow of images to make themselves look virtuous and strong — and each other monstrous and weak. It’s propaganda. But some images also tell the truth: The chaos during Yehoud’s release in Gaza on Thursday, for example, reflected the fragility of the ceasefire deal that took effect Jan. 19.

“All of this was filmed and intentionally shared,” said Danielle Gilbert, an expert on hostage-taking at Northwestern University. “Social scientists talk about the idea of a collapse of compassion. Audience pay more attention and are willing to take more of a risk to recover, or help, individual victims.”

Throughout history, both sides of hostage standoffs and POW releases have tried to capitalize on the plight of those in captivity by focusing on details of the names, faces, families and conditions of captivity. Even in war, branding is a potent force.

Proof of life, or lack of it, injects urgency into negotiations

Since at least the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s baby son in 1932, images of hostages have been pivotal elements of negotiations because they carry an intense emotional charge.

We can’t, for example, unsee images of bound and blindfolded Americans taken captive in Iran in 1979. Or the photo of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl holding up a newspaper, a sign of life, before his Islamic militant captors killed him in 2002. Or the image of a masked Arab commando, captured in black-and-white in 1972, on the balcony of the Munich Olympic Village building. Inside, a Palestinian group called Black September killed 11 Israeli team members.

The Israel-Hamas media duel, waged heavily on social media, exploded the moment thousands of Hamas fighters defeated Israel’s borders on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and dragging about 250 back to Gaza. Cameras anchored to the militants themselves, as well as phones hoisted by the Israelis under attack, captured the killing-and-hostage-taking spree in such detail that some viewers reported a type of trauma — called vicarious or secondary trauma — just from seeing them.

Billions of American dollars and other aid have been influenced at least in part by public opinion, which has fluctuated over the course of the conflict. Anti-Israel protests raged around the world, antisemitism surged and disinformation about the conflict proliferated. The International Criminal Court last year issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and Hamas’ late military chief, accusing them of crimes against humanity in connection with the Gaza war. The embattled Israeli leader has vowed to fight the allegations.

Israel has used images to argue that it was Hamas that waged crimes against humanity. Within a month of the attacks, the army compiled a film of the grisliest moments of the Hamas attack called “Bearing Witness” in English and “The Film of Horrors” in Hebrew. The Israeli government invited select journalists, diplomats and Hollywood executives to watch it at screenings in several countries.

In Tel Aviv, a briefing on the film came as Israel cut off vital supplies to the Gaza Strip and pounded the territory with airstrikes. The film has provided a justification of sorts for Israel’s fierce tactics.

Spectacles of strength, chaos and smiles

Since the ceasefire began, Hamas has turned each round of hostage releases into a spectacle with large crowds, flags and smiling, waving hostages on stages. For the militants, it’s a chance to show off their survival as a fighting force and ongoing control of Gaza after 15 months of heavy fighting. At least 47,000 people have been killed by Israel’s bombardment of the enclave, according to local health officials, and nearly all of Gaza’s population has been displaced. The destruction has quieted under the ceasefire, but people in Gaza have little to return to after the airstrikes reduced much of the territory to rubble.

The images of hostages being led through the crowds Thursday raised the question of whether Hamas is really in control. Netanyahu condemned the “shocking scenes” and called on international mediators to ensure the safety of hostages in future releases — a commitment he said he later received.

Saturday’s hostage release proceeded smoothly, providing strong evidence that Hamas remains firmly in charge, and images of the handovers told more of the story.

Hamas let three Israeli hostages go while on camera with certificates reading, “release order.” Ahead of the third release, seven masked men stood on a stage decorated with pictures of dead Hamas leaders and the sign “Zionism will not win.”

Across the border, Israeli TV stations have filmed the emotional reunions, in which family and friends watching their loved ones’ releases on live television, shifting from tense quiet to excited cheers and, often, tears.

“There he is!” shouted the wife of Keith Siegel, watching a TV screen as he was released. The government follows up with photos and videos of the traumatized ex-captives reuniting with their families in person, smiles hugs and tears on Israeli TV for hours in a recurring loop.

Those scenes are only the start of long and difficult roads toward recovery for the hostages and the families. But the exuberant moments serve a purpose in a country where one stated goal of the war is to bring the hostages home, and where Israelis are bitterly divided over the slow pace of their return. Many hostage families have accused Netanyahu of prolonging the war for his own political survival.

In this conflict, the absence of images also tells a story.

Yarden Bibas, 35, was one of the three hostages released with full choreography on Saturday. But there’s been no word on the fate of his family. Their abduction, filmed by Hamas, has become a symbol of the brutality of the siege. In it, Shiri Bibas tearfully clutches her two red-haired sons — Ariel, then 3, and Kfir, 9 months — as Hamas fighters surround her.

In November 2023, Hamas released a video of the boys’ father, Yarden, weeping on camera as he is told his family is dead. Israel has not confirmed their condition. On Saturday, Israel aired footage of Yarden in Israel, appearing weary with his eyes closed, stepping into the arms of his waiting family.

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Associated Press writer Josef Federman contributed from Jerusalem.