A crowd cheered as masked militants brought two pale and dazed Israeli captives onto a rainy stage in front of cameras for the seventh hostage-prisoner exchange of the Gaza ceasefire Saturday. Around the stage, Hamas fighters stood in an orderly fashion in the southern Gazan city of Rafah as the pair were handed over to the Red Cross, with Avera Mengistu, one of the two freed men, walking with apparent difficulty. Like the hostages at previous liberations, Tal Shoham and Mengistu were handed liberation certificates in Hebrew before being helped into vehicles from the Red Cross, which acts as an intermediary, an AFP journalist reported.
A Hamas source told AFP that the Palestinian Islamist movement planned to release the other four living hostages from the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza later in the morning. In Rafah and Nuseirat, the militant group had prepared for a now well-rehearsed ceremony, building stages to parade the hostages to be released in front of large posters and billboards advertising its cause or praising fallen fighters. In Rafah, Hamas fighters from the group’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam Bridages, wearing fatigues, balaclavas and green headbands stood in a cordon around the handover area to keep the crowd out.
In a display of strength, some held Kalashnikov assault rifles and others flaunted hand-held rocket launchers, while Hamas’ green flag flew around the square on buildings destroyed by war in the Palestinian territory. Fidaa Awda, a resident .
