The hostage release ceremonies that the Hamas terror group held in Gaza during the first phase of the ceasefire deal, replete with fancy propaganda, appeared to be attended by large audiences only because Hamas paid each participant $200 in an attempt to broadcast widespread support, Channel 12 News reported.

The channel aired a program on Sunday evening showing journalist Ohad Hamo interviewing former Gazans who immigrated to Germany. According to estimates, about 40,000 Palestinians live in Germany, most of them former residents of the Gaza Strip. In Europe, they are no longer afraid to speak against Hamas.

Hamo interviewed Hamza, a 26-year-old Gazan who immigrated to Germany after he was beaten up by Hamas terrorists for attending a protest against the high cost of living in the Strip.

“There were Hamas activists in civilian clothes at the protest,” he said. “In Gaza, you don’t know if the person in front of you is Hamas or not, you can’t identify them 100 percent. After the protest, someone dragged me into a car, where they beat me even before I got to the station. All this happened because I said two words: ‘We want to live’, which is a crime according to Hamas laws.”

“I once jokingly told my father that maybe I’ll join Hamas. They’ll pay me a salary and provide a car, so why not? He told me that that would be the last time I would enter his house.”

“I was at their central headquarters at Islamic University. I know a lot of people who joined Hamas, despite the fact that they don’t identify with them, just to benefit financially. Good friends of mine joined them,” Hamza said.

“It’s not easy to protest against Hamas. Everyone knows that any criticism against them will at least end with you in intensive care— after they shoot you in the knees—so on the contrary, I will fly the Hamas flag over my house. Think of them as ISIS, with better public relations people.”

Hazma addressed the fact that Hamas has recruited thousands of new terrorists since October 7. “Who enlists in Hamas? People who live in tents, who stand all day to get a meal and fail to get it at the end. Hamas says to those people: ‘Come, and we’ll give you a monthly salary’, and that’s it.”

“In the past, it took over two years until you could enlist in the Al-Qassam Brigades. Today, they say in the Strip that participants in the hostage release ceremonies each receive $200, and half of them are not even active in Hamas. They put on uniforms and weapons to broadcast a picture of victory.”

“Even if I was in Gaza and they told me to take $200, I would do it, then take off the uniform and go my way,” he admitted. “They forget about you and you about them.”

Hamza added that even in Berlin, there are neighborhoods where you can’t speak out against Hamas, “because they will attack you and shout at you until you think like them.”

Hamo also interviewed Rami, a former resident of the Strip, who spent years in and out of Hamas prisons because he called for normalization with Israel – one of the most serious crimes that can be committed according to Hamas.

Rami said: “On October 7, Hamas carried out an attack for the first time in front of all the media. Usually when they carry out attacks, the media is not allowed to report on it but they wanted the pictures to be broadcast to show that the people support them.”

Regarding the crowds at Hamas demonstrations, Rami said: “Part of the interest of these people in the demonstrations is money. The participants, those who loudly shout ‘Hamas, Hamas and Sinwar’ – have applied for refugee status and asylum.”

Ahmed Mansour, one of the prominent voices in the fight against radical Islam in Europe, spoke about Hamas supporters in Europe. “In my opinion, most Gazans who came to Europe didn’t support Hamas but became supporters here. We have people, unfortunately, who have absorbed the extreme ideology of Hamas. Hamas propaganda is everywhere in Gaza, in kindergartens, in educational institutions, on television and in public places. Even if you don’t want to see it – it’s there all the time.”

Yasmine Bedja, a journalist specializing in Islamic immigration in Germany, told Channel 12 that since October 7 she has been looking for Gazan immigrants who still want peace.

“I’m still looking for them,” she said. “I found only a few.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)