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In the tense minutes before their freedom following 471 days of imprisonment, three Israeli hostages were presented with parting tokens from their terrorist abductors.
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Per propaganda videos and photos distributed by Hamas, after Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher were seated in a vehicle bound for the transfer point in Gaza City, each was handed two items bearing the emblem of the Qassam Brigades, organization’s military arm.
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The first was a personalized “release decision” certificate to recognize their time in captivity. The Times of Israel reports that it was written in both Hebrew and Arabic.
They were also presented with a paper bag said to contain a map of the Gaza Strip and photos of them during their time in captivity.
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The women, each wearing identification tags on lanyards bearing the Palestinian flag, were made to hold the items up to the camera as they sat in the backseat of a vehicle at an undisclosed location that was not the raucous exchange point at Saraya Square where hundreds of Gazans lined the streets.
Speaking to YNET, Israeli officials called it a “cynical and psychological exploitation of women who were deprived of their freedom by monsters.”
The hostages later described the tokens as a manipulative “cynical game,” per the Jerusalem Post, and a representative for Gonen’s family told CNN the bags were later confiscated by Israel’s Internal Security Agency.
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At one point in the Hamas video, a Red Cross official is seen signing a document written in Arabic and presented by a masked terrorist.
According to CNN, the document read: “I, the representative of the International Red Cross, acknowledge that I have received from the Izz Eddin al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, a total of three prisoners, who are…” and then names Damari, Gonen and Steinbrecher.
The masked person is also shown signing a document and then displaying it to the camera.
The three women were seen holding the bags when they were greeted by IDF soldiers in Re’im, as seen in images distributed by the Israeli Army, but with the Qassam logo blurred.
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