Jerusalem/Cairo/Gaza (Reuters) – The Palestinian militant movement Hamas freed four female Israeli soldiers hostage on Saturday in exchange for around 200 Palestinian prisoners, holding one aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza.
The four hostages were taken to a podium in Gaza City amid a large crowd of Palestinians and surrounded by dozens of armed Hamas men. They waved and smiled before being led out, into ICRC vehicles and transported to Israeli forces.
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Hundreds of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv’s so-called Hostage Square, crying, hugging and celebrating as they watched the handover on a giant screen.
The four soldiers – Karina Ariev, Daniela Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag – were stationed at an observation post on the edge of Gaza and were kidnapped by Hamas fighters who stormed their base during the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
They reunited with their families at an Israeli military base near the Gaza border, Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said in a video. They will then be taken to a hospital in central Israel, the Israeli Ministry of Health said.
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Hamas said 200 of the group’s prisoners would be released on Saturday as part of the exchange. They include convicted militants serving life sentences for their involvement in attacks that killed dozens of people. About 70 are expected to be deported, Hamas said.
The exchange planned for Saturday is the second since a ceasefire began on Jan. 19 and Hamas handed over three Israeli civilians in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners.
The ceasefire agreement, hammered out after months of on-and-off negotiations brokered by Qatar and Egypt and backed by the United States, halted fighting for the first time since a week-long truce in November 2023.
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Phased agreement
In the first six-week phase of the agreement, Hamas agreed to release 33 hostages, including children, women, older men, and the sick and injured, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, as Israeli troops withdraw from some of their positions in the Gaza Strip.
In a subsequent phase, the two sides would negotiate the exchange of remaining hostages, including men of military age, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, which is largely in ruins after 15 months of fighting and shelling.
After Saturday’s release, 90 hostages remain in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities, who declared about a third of them dead in absentia.
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Israel launched its campaign in Gaza following the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, when militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli counts. Since then, more than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to local health officials.
Israel lost more than 400 soldiers in fighting in Gaza. Hamas did not reveal how many fighters it lost. Israel estimates that more than a third of the death toll in Gaza is militants.
