Hamas Hostages Are Released to Israeli Forces
Hamas on Saturday released four female soldiers held hostage in Gaza in a show of force, surrounded by armed fighters. The release was part of the cease-fire deal with Israel, which is poised to release 200 Palestinian prisoners in exchange.
The Israeli military said the women had been handed over to its solders inside the Gaza Strip and were being brought back to Israel, where they will undergo preliminary medical tests after over 15 months in captivity in Gaza.
The swap is seen as a crucial test of how the 42-day cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas will develop in the coming weeks. Mediators hope the agreement will become the foundation for a permanent end to the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s government identified the four women as Karina Ariev, 20; Daniella Gilboa, 20; Naama Levy, 20; and Liri Albag, 19. All four were abducted from the military base near Gaza where they had been serving during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which kicked off the war.
On Saturday, in scenes streamed live on Al-Jazeera and watched breathlessly in Israel, Hamas fighters marched the four soldiers onto a makeshift stage in downtown Gaza City, surrounded by a cheering crowd. After an impromptu handover ceremony, the armed and masked men handed the women over to the International Committee for the Red Cross.
The four had been held by Hamas since the 2023 attack, in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage, according to Israel. In response, Israel launched an intense bombing campaign that Gaza health officials say has killed at least 45,000 people.
Under the terms of the deal, which went into effect on Sunday, Israeli forces are also expected to partially withdraw from a major zone in central Gaza after the swap, enabling hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the fighting to return to their homes in northern Gaza.
Under the agreement, Hamas agreed to release 33 hostages of the nearly 100 remaining in Gaza. So far it has released seven, including the four from Saturday. Israel will free over 1,500 Palestinian prisoners in exchange.
Many of the 200 Palestinian prisoners that Israel is scheduled to release on Saturday are serving life sentences for involvement in attacks against Israelis. Around 70 will be exiled abroad as part of the agreement and will not be allowed to return to their homes in the West Bank and Jerusalem, according to a list provided by the Palestinian authorities.
Rawan Sheikh Ahmad contributed reporting.
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Hamas released four female soldiers on Saturday as part of a hostage-for-prisoner exchange, more than a year after the women were taken captive during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that started the war.
The hostage release is part of a 42-day cease-fire deal that went into effect on Sunday, pausing the fighting between Israel and Hamas. Hamas agreed to incrementally release 33 out of almost 100 remaining hostages in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinians jailed by Israel and a partial Israeli withdrawal.
The young women were working as “spotters” for Israel’s army, reporting on suspicious activity across the border. During the Hamas-led attack, militants stormed the Nahal Oz military base in Israel, killing more than 50 soldiers and abducting the women, all of them teenagers at the time, and three other female soldiers.
In May, the Israel military released a three-minute edited collection of videos, verified by The New York Times, showing Palestinian fighters, some wearing Hamas headbands, binding the hands of five women, including the four being released on Saturday. The footage was recorded by body cameras worn by the Hamas militants who abducted them, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents relatives of many of the captives.
Here is what else we know about the four released hostages:
Liri Albag
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In January, Hamas’s military wing released an edited video of Ms. Albag, now 19, speaking for three and a half minutes, in which she said she had been held for more than 450 days.
In a statement, Ms. Albag’s family said that “her severe psychological distress is evident” in the video and asked leaders to “make decisions as if your own children were there.”
“She is just dozens of kilometers away from us, yet for 456 days we have been unable to bring her home,” the family said.
Karina Ariev
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Ms. Ariev, now 20, called her parents during the attack, describing militants firing guns and rockets, and told them she loved them, according to Israeli news media. Her family later that day found a Hamas video posted on social media that showed Ms. Ariev and two other women in a Jeep — her face was bleeding, they said.
In August, after Ms. Ariev turned 20 in captivity, Ms. Ariev’s older sister, Sasha Ariev, said at an event in Jerusalem that she had moved home after the Oct. 7 attack to help her struggling parents who were feeling increasingly helpless and struggling to keep up hope.
She said the hostage crisis was consuming her. “How can I sleep when we haven’t succeeded in bringing Karina and all the other hostages home?” she said. “How can I sleep when I’m in my bed and she’s a hostage?”
Daniella Gilboa
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Daniella Gilboa, 20, is from Petah Tikva, in central Israel. In July, Ms. Gilboa’s family released a video made by Hamas that they had received months earlier, which showed her and Ms. Ariev in captivity.
In an interview with Maariv, an Israeli newspaper, the father of Ms. Gilboa’s boyfriend said the family was feeling mixed emotions over the video. “In her family, there is a feeling of relief alongside a feeling of disappointment,” he was quoted as saying.
Naama Levy
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Naama Levy, who is also now 20, texted her mother from a safe room on the day of the attack, according to a website focused on advocating her release. “I’ve never heard anything like this,” she wrote. A Hamas video of her being taken to Gaza circulated on social media shortly after the attack.
In an interview for a documentary about sexual violence during the attack, Ayelet Levy Sachar, Naama’s mother, spoke of her daughter’s kidnapping. She was seen in a Hamas video in pajama bottoms, drenched in blood.
“They’re grabbing her by the hair, and she’s all, like, messed up,” she said, adding, “We would like to think that this couldn’t be possible. That nobody would harm a young girl. But then you just see it there.”
Hamas’s message? They’re organized, and they’re still in charge. Even the decision to clothe the hostages in military-style fatigues seemed designed to make a point: These were soldiers, not civilians.
Israel just announced that the hostages Naama Levy, 20; Liri Albag, 19; Karina Ariev, 20; and Daniella Gilboa, 20, have officially been released to Israeli custody.
The Hostage Families’ Forum, a group that represents most of the relatives of Israelis held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, hailed the release of the four female hostages and called on all sides to uphold the cease-fire deal. “Their return today represents a moment of light in the darkness,” the group said in a statement, “while serving as a painful reminder of the urgency to bring back the 90 hostages still in Gaza.”
The Israeli military just said that the four hostages had been handed over to Israeli soldiers inside the Gaza Strip. They are being brought back to Israeli territory, where they will undergo preliminary medical tests after over 15 months in captivity in Gaza.
Since the start of the war, we’ve seen at least eight hostage handovers inside Gaza. Today’s was by far the most performative. It involved a stage, an exchange of documents between Hamas and the Red Cross, and hundreds of masked, uniformed militants.
The Israeli military said that the Red Cross had confirmed that the four Israeli hostages were in their hands and making their way to Israeli forces inside Gaza.
The convoy of Red Cross vehicles is now leaving the square, seemingly carrying the four released hostages.
Surrounded by armed and masked militants, the hostages briefly smiled and waved to the crowd before being ushered offstage.
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The four female hostages have emerged from the parked civilian cars, thronged by masked men. They have been escorted to the stage. They’re wearing what seem to be military fatigues.
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This is quite a show of force from Hamas. The group is attempting to project its military strength as well as a sense of its popular support.
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A masked Hamas militant is sitting at the desk on the stage, alongside an official from the Red Cross. They are both signing documents.
There are now four Red Cross jeeps parked at one end of the square. At the other end are five civilian cars with blacked-out windows. Between them stands the makeshift stage as well as hundreds of masked militants and a large crowd of civilians.
Three Red Cross jeeps have now arrived inside a makeshift thoroughfare lined by a phalanx of masked militants. Hundreds of Palestinian civilians have gathered on the other side of the militants. They appear to be awaiting a ceremony on the stage.
The Palestinian authorities have published the list of 200 Palestinian prisoners expected to be released in exchange for the four female Israeli soldiers held in Gaza. They are all men, and most of them are serving life sentences in Israeli prison for involvement in militancy. As part of the deal, dozens of them will not be allowed to return to their homes in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
The Palestinian prisoners to be released on Saturday include Mohammad Odeh, Wael Qassim and Wissam Abbasi, who were arrested in 2002 for a string of deadly bombings targeting Israelis in crowded civilian areas. One of their most infamous attacks, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, killed nine people.
A Red Cross jeep has pulled up alongside a long line of masked militants from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Footage shows several vehicles belonging to the Red Cross arriving at the square in Gaza where the hostages are set to be handed over.
Hamas has set up a small stage in the square with a desk and two chairs on it. A banner proclaims, in Hebrew: “Zionism will not win.”
This is the moment when a Red Cross convoy drove into Gaza City.
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Hamas and its allies seem to be planning to turn the hostage handover into a show of force. In footage streamed by Al Jazeera, the Arabic-language broadcaster, scores of armed fighters waving green flags associated with Hamas or wearing Palestinian Islamic Jihad arm patches have deployed in a major square in Gaza City.
Footage live-streamed from the square in Gaza City showed the moment when armed fighters arrived in vehicles, making the victory sign with their hands. The militants formed a line to separate the civilians gathered to see the release of the hostages to the Red Cross.
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Rawan Sheikh Ahmad
Reporting from Haifa, Israel
As part of the cease-fire agreement, the Israeli authorities are expected to release 200 Palestinian prisoners today in exchange for four hostages held by Hamas. Israeli’s justice ministry has yet to publish the names of the prisoners set for release.