Hamas releases four Israeli soldiers in second swap

Hamas has released four female Israeli soldiers held in Gaza as part of the ceasefire agreement, handing them over to Red Cross officials in Palestine Square in Gaza City.

In exchange for the second release of the captives on Saturday, Israel is expected to release 200 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

Ahead of the release, scores of masked Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters gathered at the square where a large crowd of Palestinians also congregated.

In addition to hundreds of Hamas members, other Palestinian factions, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, are also present at the site.

The four Israeli soldiers, Karina Ariev, 20; Daniella Gilboa, 20; Naama Levy, 20; and Liri Albag, 19, were captured in Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack that ignited the war.

They were taken from Nahal Oz base near the border with Gaza when Hamas overran it, killing more than 60 soldiers there. The female abductees had all served in a unit of lookouts charged with monitoring threats along the border. A fifth female soldier in their unit, Agam Berger, 20, was abducted with them but not included in the list.

After the swap, Israel is expected to begin pulling back from the Netzarim corridor — an east-west road dividing Gaza in two — and allowing displaced Palestinians in the south to return to their former homes in the north for the first time since the beginning of the war.

Palestinians will only be allowed to move north on foot, with vehicular traffic restricted until later in the ceasefire.

PHASED AGREEMENT

The ceasefire agreement, worked out after months of on-off negotiations brokered by Qatar and Egypt and backed by the United States, halted the fighting for the first time since a truce that lasted just a week in November 2023.

In the first phase, Hamas has agreed to release 33 hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

In a subsequent phase, the two sides would negotiate the exchange of the remaining hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, which lies largely in ruins after 15 months of fighting and Israeli bombardment.

Israel launched the war following the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, when militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, more than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to health authorities there.

The release of the first three hostages on Sunday brought an emotional response from Israelis. But the phased release has drawn protests from some Israelis who fear the deal will break down after women, children, elderly and ill hostages are freed in the first phase, condemning male hostages of military age whose fate is not to be resolved until later.

Others, including some in the government, feel the deal hands a victory to Hamas, which has reasserted its presence in Gaza despite vows of Israeli leaders to destroy it. Hardliners, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, have demanded that Israel resume fighting at the end of the first phase.

Most of Hamas’ top leadership and thousands of its fighters have been killed, but the group’s police have returned to the streets since the ceasefire began.