Hamas Hostages Are Released to Israeli Forces

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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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

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

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

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

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.”

Video

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.

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.

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.