In a current interview with an Israeli TV station, Chen Goldstein-Almog, an Israeli hostage launched in November 2023, stated that when she and her daughter, Agam, had been let go, they had been transferred to a Pink Cross automobile that was surrounded by a big crowd of individuals.
“I do not forget that Agam instructed me: ‘Mother, right this moment we’re going to die,’” she stated, recalling that second. “It was terrifying till the top.”
In an interview after final Sunday’s launch of hostages, Yves Daccord, the previous director common of the Pink Cross, stated handoffs of hostages ought to happen in a quiet place, away from the general public.
“On the whole, the perfect is with out a crowd,” Mr. Daccord stated. Releasing hostages at a big public gathering, he added, was laden with dangers and unpredictability.
Israeli medical professionals advocating for hostages in Gaza warned that chaotic handoffs might set off traumatic reminiscences of the hostages’ first moments in Gaza, wherein militants drove a few of them by means of rowdy crowds.
“The discharge is reliving, to some extent, the kidnapping,” stated Dr. Hagai Levine, the top of the medical group with the Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board, an Israeli group.
Because the cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel got here into impact final Sunday, Hamas has labored laborious to point out that it stays the dominant Palestinian occasion in Gaza, with militants parading by means of metropolis facilities and cops deploying at intersections.
It isn’t clear what number of fighters, cops, bureaucrats and political leaders survived the warfare, however by showcasing the handovers in such a public manner, Hamas made clear that it’s nonetheless standing in elements of Gaza that had been subjected to a number of the most damaging bombing assaults of the warfare.
Patrick Kingsley contributed reporting.
