The Gaza war is paused, but Israel and Hamas keep up a fierce battle of optics over hostage releases

Arbel Yehoud is achingly close to freedom, but her face is a study of shadow and terror. She is dwarfed by dozens of masked Hamas fighters—and beyond them, a heaving mob of chanting men who surround her and fill the frame.

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men who surround her and fill the frame. In the next, Yehoud looks up at her captors, pleading. But video suggests they're on the edge themselves, barely able to hold back the people impeding Yehoud's dash to safety under the terms of a ceasefire deal.

Cut to photos of her friends and family in Israel, watching the handover live - hands over their mouths, breathless. Yehoud makes it into waiting vehicles, and then to Israel. Cue the government's images of her joyous reunion with her parents.