Gazans in rare show of anger at Hamas over gifts for Israeli hostages

Al Qassam Brigades gave liberated captives souvenirs, medals and gold jewellery

Liberated Israeli hostages from left, Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher with bags bearing the logo of the armed wing of Hamas. AFP

Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza

Hamas has been presenting released Israeli hostages with gifts, including medals, maps of Gaza, and accessories featuring the Palestinian flag. However, one gift drew questions about the motivation behind it, angering many Palestinians.

According to Arab and Palestinian media, the Al Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, gave a pair of gold earrings to the daughter of Sagui Dekel-Chen, an Israeli-American hostage who was released on Saturday in the latest exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Mr Dekel-Chen was captured on October 7, 2023, and his daughter was born four months after his captivity began.

This gesture prompted mixed reactions among Gazans. Alaa Matar, 36, whose six-year-old daughter Sara and 35-year-old wife were killed in an Israeli air strike on their home in Al Tuffah, east of Gaza city, spoke of his anguish.

"From the moment I saw the earrings given to the prisoner for his daughter, I felt nothing but pain and heartbreak," Mr Matar told The National. "Why did all of this happen? What was the point of all this chaos? For what reason was our life destroyed? And at what cost?"

Israelis in Tel Aviv celebrate the release of three hostages by Hamas

01:05

One of the other gifts that Hamas presented was an hourglass given to Einav Zangauker, an activist for hostage families and the mother of Matan Zangauker, another Israeli hostage.

However, the gold earrings caused the strongest reactions. Many Gaza residents, particularly those whose relatives were killed in the war, expressed frustration.

"Why does he get a gift to take to his daughter while I was dying to hold mine – only for her to be killed?" said Mr Matar. "Why is her mother still buried under the rubble, and no one cares enough to retrieve her so we can at least build a grave for her?

"Even if there is a message behind this, why don’t they consider our feelings? What could possibly justify all this pain?"

Hamas released three Israeli hostages in the sixth swap underpinning a fragile truce that came close to collapse on the weekend. In exchange, Israel has freed 369 Palestinian detainees.

A Palestinian man and two girls stand a mid of the rubble of homes, destroyed by the Israeli army's air and ground offensive against Hamas in in Bureij refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. (AP Photo / Abdel Kareem Hana)

Hanan Jamal, 38, a resident of Gaza city, shared similar sentiments to Mr Matar.

"The gold gift, I keep thinking – what was the purpose behind it? And how many devastated mothers are out there, grieving the loss of their children?" she told The National.

She spoke about her friend Wafaa, who struggled for years to conceive two children, only to lose them in the war.

"Did anyone feel the pain in her heart?" she asked.

Ms Jamal's other friend, Ibtisam, lost all three of her children born after years of fertility treatments.

Ibtisam's body was disfigured after she was trapped under the rubble of an Israeli attack for days.

"She tried to conceive again, but hope is almost non-existent," said Ms Jamal's "There are thousands of mothers who will never be able to have children again after losing them in this reckless war."

"But what really matters to the world is international opinion. The grief of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian families? That doesn’t seem to matter at all."

More than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in the 15-month war and about 111,670 injured, the majority of which are women and children.

Alaa Baroud, 34, from the Al Shati refugee camp in Gaza, said that the gifts may serve a strategic purpose.

"We see that Al Qassam sent presents to the Israeli prisoners. These gifts may have symbolic meanings – one of them being that, as Muslims, we treat enemy prisoners according to Islamic teachings. This approach can also be beneficial for the prisoners' psychological state."

Mr Baroud also highlighted the potential diplomatic and political implications. "It sends a message to Israeli society that, despite everything, the killing, the destruction, the Palestinian resistance still treats captives in a certain way."

Regarding the debate around the gold earrings, Mr Baroud said: "It shows that the resistance knows all their updates. They are aware of what happens to the families of prisoners."