Palestinian militant group Hamas handed over four female Israeli soldiers as hostages to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Saturday. Hours later, Israeli authorities said they had released 200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees as part of the Gaza ceasefire agreement aimed at ending the 15-month war in Gaza.
The four freed soldiers were led to a podium in Gaza City, amid a large crowd of Palestinians and surrounded by dozens of armed Hamas members. The women waved and smiled before being taken into ICRC vehicles which transported them to Israeli forces. The Israeli army said it received the four in Gaza.
The soldiers – Karina Ariev, Daniela Gilboa, Naama Levy, all aged 20, and Liri Albag, 19 – were all stationed at an observation post on the outskirts of Gaza and kidnapped by Hamas fighters who invaded their base during the attack on Israel in October. .7, 2023.
A video of their kidnapping was released in May and showed the five conscripts, in their pajamas and knocked unconscious, some bloodied, tied up and crammed into a jeep. The footage was recovered from body cameras worn by gunmen who attacked the Nahal Oz base in southern Israel where the women served as guards.
After being reunited with their families at an Israeli military base near the border with Gaza, the freed hostages were to be taken to a hospital in central Israel, the Israeli Health Ministry said.
Hamas said that among the 200 Palestinians who took part in the exchange were members of Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), some of whom are serving life sentences. Egyptian state television reported that Israel had released around 70 Palestinians to Egypt.
The ICRC said it had transferred a total of 128 detainees to Gaza and the West Bank, and that most would be sent to the West Bank. A convoy of Red Cross buses carrying some of the freed Palestinians could be seen leaving the Ofer military prison in the West Bank.
Saturday’s exchange was the second since the ceasefire began last Sunday and Hamas handed over three Israeli civilians in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners.
The ceasefire agreement, crafted after months of on-and-off negotiations brokered by Qatar and Egypt and backed by the United States, ended fighting for the first time since a truce that did not lasted only one week in November 2023.
Hamas not following liberation plan, says Israel
After Saturday’s liberation, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a message on X that Hamas had not respected the ceasefire agreement that called for the prior release of Israeli civilians. Israel was awaiting the release of Arbel Yehud, one of the civilians held hostage, on Saturday.
Emily Damari, 28, Doron Steinbrecher, 31, and Romi Gonen, 24, were the first three Israeli hostages released from Gaza on Sunday. Gonen was kidnapped from the Nova music festival, while the others were kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza.
Israel will not allow Palestinians to cross the border into northern Gaza until Yehud is freed, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Israel was expected to begin withdrawing from the Netzarim Corridor – an east-west route dividing Gaza – and allow displaced Palestinians from the south to return to the north for the first time since the war began.
“We are determined to return Arbel Yehud, an Israeli citizen kidnapped from Nir Oz (kibbutz), as well as Shiri Bibas and her two children, Kfir and Ariel, whose welfare we are extremely concerned about,” the spokesperson said. Israeli military spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari. said.
A Hamas official told Reuters that Yehud was alive and would be released next Saturday.
One of the displaced Palestinians waiting to return to northern Gaza is Suhair Bakr, 53. She told CBC News that her only son died in the war shortly after leaving his home in Gaza City. She doesn’t know where he is buried.
She said the exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners was “not a victory” given the number of homes and families destroyed in Gaza.
“Our victory is that we return home, even though our homes are destroyed, even though we know there is nothing to rebuild,” Bakr said. “No water, no electricity, no houses.”
Mahmoud Al-Zain, who was also waiting near Gaza City on Saturday for a chance to return, said his house was bombed on the eighth day of the war.
“We didn’t even dream of going back,” the 48-year-old said.
“We have family in northern Gaza…our entire childhood was spent in Gaza. We cannot live without Gaza,” he said.
The head of the United Nations Development Program, Achim Steiner, said on Wednesday that the war had set back Gaza’s development by 60 years. He said two-thirds of the territory’s buildings were damaged or destroyed.
“You can imagine two million people in the Gaza Strip who have lost not only their shelter, but also public infrastructure, sewage treatment systems, fresh water supply systems, public management of “All of these basic infrastructure and service elements are simply not enough.” does not exist,” Steiner said at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
During the first six-week phase of the deal, Hamas agreed to release 33 hostages, including children, women, elderly men and the sick and wounded, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. , while Israeli troops withdraw from some of their positions in the Gaza Strip.
In a later phase, the two sides would negotiate the exchange of remaining hostages, including military-aged men, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, which is largely in ruins after 15 months of Israeli fighting and bombardment. .
Israel launched its Gaza campaign after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, when militants killed 1,200 people and brought more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli counts. Since then, more than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to local health authorities.
After the release last Sunday of hostages Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher and the recovery of the body of an Israeli soldier missing for a decade, Israel says that 94 Israelis and foreigners are still detained in Gaza, although it is not known exactly how many of them are detained. still alive.
