For three days now, the same question has been asked in Israel whenever the names of the hostages released by Hamas are made public: "Are the red-haired children there? But every time, so far, the answer has been no. No, the "red-headed children" were still not on the lists on Sunday, November 26, when the Israeli authorities announced the return of the third group of freed captives.

Fourteen Israelis (including nine children and two dual nationals) were exchanged for 39 Palestinian prisoners as part of the agreement between the Islamist group and Israel. Outside the agreement, Hamas also let go three Thais, as well as 25-year-old Russian-Israeli Roni Krivoi, the first person to be freed after direct intervention by Moscow. In total, since Friday, 58 hostages held in Gaza have been released. This includes 18, most of them Thais, who were not part of the agreement which included the exchange of 117 Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails.

The little "redheads" are Kfir, 10 months old (9 months old at the time of the kidnapping), and Ariel, 4 years old. They were kidnapped on October 7 with their mother, Shiri Bibas, from the Nir Oz kibbutz. Their father, Yarden, is also being held in Gaza, and two of their grandparents have been murdered. Since then, the photo of Shiri holding her sons close to her, wrapped in a light-colored blanket and with a male Hamas member's hand on her shoulder, has become a symbol: the perfect image of innocence under threat, but also of a mother's love and fear.

So much so that some people in Israel are now wondering: has this symbol backfired on the children with the flaming hair and their mother? Has it turned them into valuable pawns in the Hamas game? The negotiations surrounding the release of the hostages, which began on November 24, clearly show that this is also a case of psychological warfare waged by Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza. The Israelis are convinced that the Islamist organization is making the most of their anxiety by carefully choosing the people it is going to release.

Some cards may be worth more than others, in this face-off that makes Hamas the master of the situation and Israel a humiliated nation. Is an elderly woman (there were six in the first group on November 24) as valuable as a child? Does a bi-national carry more weight than someone with an Israeli passport only, in a country where a large proportion of the population has two nationalities?

No one can answer these questions, but the various governments concerned are sparing no effort to obtain the return of their citizens. As the families of dual nationals have often said since October 7, they are pinning their hopes on the leaders of third countries whose passports they hold. So far, it is Germany that has emerged as the winner, so to speak, with eight people released. To date, none of the eight French citizens presumed to be held captive in Gaza has yet left the enclave.

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