In an interview with the Hamas-affiliated “Palestine,” B’ara Riyan, a spokesperson for “The Palestinian Media Center,” explained Hamas's reasons for publicizing video clips documenting Gilad Shalit’s captivity.

Riyan insisted that the death of Abed Al-Rahman Al-Mubashir, who led the Al-Qassam squad in charge of holding Shalit, was not involved in the decision to publicize the videos.

According to Riya, the real reason was in order to show the documented kidnapping of Shalit, and portray it as a huge success and victory for Hamas. One which allowed them to hold negotiations with Israel from a position of strength for the release of hundreds of prisoners.

“We are aiming to embarrass the occupation forces and in essence refute the Israeli claims regarding the abduction. We want to depict the ethical and moral difference between the military arm of Hamas, that is labelled a terrorist entity by the world, and the racist Israeli military that treats Palestinian prisoners in a shameful and harsh manner. We hope to create bewilderment within Israeli society,” said Riyan.

Riyan went further to say that another main goal is to directly attack the morale of IDF soldiers and their families as well as affect the Israeli political system by abducting soldiers.

“We are aiming to attack the morale of Israeli soldiers, as was evident during the abduction of Shalit on social media and various internet sites. This together with attacking the morale of the families of abducted soldiers, and encouraging them to apply pressure on the Israeli government to conduct more talks and release more prisoners. This will happen after they see how pleasantly Shalit was treated at the hands of Hamas.”