A video of 85-yr-old Yocheved Lifshitz, one of the two captives released by Hamas late Monday, shaking hands with her captor and parting by saying ‘shalom’ – which means both goodbye and peace in Hebrew – has broken the internet, with many calling for restoration of normalcy and restarting the process of peace.
85-yr-old Yocheved Lifshitz, who spent yrs getting medical supplies into Gaza, was 1 of 2 hostages released today by Hamas. As she is transferred to the Red Cross she turns around, takes her captor’s hand, & says “shalom.” Amid all the death, hope remains alive. Ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/gkMHFrMJi0
— Ariel Gold אריאל ✡️☮️ (@ArielElyseGold) October 23, 2023
Yocheved Lifshitz and Nurit Cooper, two elderly Israeli women, were released by Hamas citing “compelling humanitarian” reasons. The terrorist group said that Qatar and Egypt were part of the mediation process.
The video which is over a minute shows the Hamas terrorists talking with both the captives and giving them snacks and coffee to drink. The bulk of the video is without audio – possibly because the terrorists would not want Israeli army to use it to find their location – and it is towards the end of the video the octogenarian Yocheved, endearingly called Yochi by her family members, shakes hands and says ‘Shalom’ to her masked captor, who also shakes her hand and replies – even though the reply is beeped to avoid detection.
However, this video is unlikely to dampen the resolve both Hamas and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have built following the October 7 attacks. While the terrorist group claims to be representing the plight of the Palestinian people, the IDF has vowed to devastate them and dismantle the terrorist group entirely.
The IDF and the Hamas terrorist group are also accusing themselves of mounting a PR war on the sidelines of the bloody war they are engaged in.
Let’s make it clear: Hamas is launching a public relations campaign to present itself as “humanitarian” and make people forget the monstrous and savage atrocities that it committed only in order to weaken support for the essential operation to eradicate its military capabilities.… https://t.co/9pTiDeb0Wt— Ambassador Gilad Erdan גלעד ארדן (@giladerdan1) October 20, 2023
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s envoy to the UN, said Hamas is launching a public relations campaign to present itself as “humanitarian” so that the world is misled into stopping Israel from conducting the operation to end Hamas.
Zoom in on #Hamas’ leadership pic.twitter.com/W6q2vTOsIe— Shahin Modarres (@ShahinModarres) October 21, 2023
“ Hamas is launching a public relations campaign to present itself as “humanitarian” and make people forget the monstrous and savage atrocities that it committed only in order to weaken support for the essential operation to eradicate its military capabilities. The only way to prevent this from happening again is by obliterating Hamas’ terrorist capabilities. At the same time it released two hostages for its PR, Hamas is still holding babies and the elderly,” Erdan said on Saturday.
The IDF also released a video of who are the leaders of Hamas and accusing Qatar of sheltering one of the world’s richest terrorist groups on social media site X. The video was deleted from their account but other users of X reshared the video, which still has not been taken down from X.