TEL AVIV, Israel — Four female Israeli soldiers who were taken in the attack that sparked the war in Gaza returned safely to Israel on Saturday after Hamas militants paraded them before a crowd of thousands in Gaza City and handed them over to the Red Cross. Israel later released 200 Palestinian prisoners in the second exchange of a fragile ceasefire.
The four Israelis smiled, waved and gave the thumbs-up from a stage in Palestine Square, with armed, masked militants on either side as Hamas again sought to show it remained in control in Gaza after 15 months of war. The hostages likely acted under duress. Previously released ones said they were held in brutal conditions and forced to record propaganda videos.
Israel’s Prison Service later said it had released of 200 Palestinians, including 121 people serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks against Israelis, while others were held without charge.
Thousands of Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Ramallah celebrated their arrival. Some of those released wore Hamas headbands given to them by the crowd. Wan-looking and wearing gray prison sweatsuits, some rode on supporters’ shoulders.
In the deal’s first major crisis, Israel said it would not allow displaced Palestinians to begin returning to northern Gaza as had been expected by Sunday, because a civilian hostage who was supposed to be released, Arbel Yahoud, had not been freed. As mediators addressed that, hundreds of Palestinians gathered, waiting to move north.
“Why are they treating us like this?” asked one man, Khalil Abd.
Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man close to the Netzarim corridor where people were waiting, Palestinian medical officials said. Israel’s military didn’t immediately comment.
Israel insists on the release of civilian hostage Arbel Yehoud
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel would not allow Palestinians to begin returning to northern Gaza until Yehoud, a civilian taken from a kibbutz, was freed.
Hamas said it held Israel responsible for “any delay in implementing the agreement and its repercussions.”
A senior Hamas official said the group informed mediators that Yehoud will be released next week. An Egyptian official involved in the negotiations called the matter a “minor issue” that mediators were working to resolve. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The ceasefire began last weekend and is aimed at winding down the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and Hamas. The deal has so far held, quieting airstrikes and rockets and allowing for increased aid to flow into tiny, devastated Gaza.
When the ceasefire started Sunday, three hostages were released in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners, all women and children.
Who are the soldiers and prisoners released?
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 squealed as they hurried to embrace loved ones. As they arrived by helicopter near a Tel Aviv hospital, thousands of people danced and celebrated.
“I had goosebumps watching them,” said onlooker Aviv Bercovich in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square. “I just want the war to end.”
In exchange, Israel released 200 prisoners. Those include Mohammad Odeh, 52, and Wael Qassim, 54, both from east Jerusalem. They were accused of carrying out deadly Hamas attacks against Israelis, including a bombing at a cafeteria at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2002 that killed nine people, including five U.S. citizens.
Seventy released prisoners were expelled to Egypt and some may go to other countries, with Algeria, Tunisia and Turkey all expressing willingness to take them in, according to Abdullah al-Zaghari, the head of a Palestinian prisoner advocacy group.
The Israeli soldiers had been taken from Nahal Oz base near the border with Gaza when Palestinian militants overran it, killing more than 60 soldiers there. A fifth female soldier in their unit, Agam Berger, 20, also was abducted.
“This is huge,” said Gaza City resident Radwan Abu Rawiya, one of thousands who watched the hostages turned over. “People forgot about the war, destruction and are celebrating.”
A video released by Hamas’ armed wing showed the hostages thanking the militants in Arabic for the “good treatment,” again likely under duress.
In a statement, Israel’s army spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari criticized what he called the “cynical” display by Hamas before the hostages’ release.
He also said Israel is concerned about the fate of the two youngest hostages — Kfir and Ariel Bibas — and their mother, Shiri. Kfir Bibas marked his second birthday in captivity this month.
What’s next in the ceasefire deal
Israel had been expected to begin pulling back from the Netzarim corridor — an east-west road dividing Gaza — and allowing displaced Palestinians in the south to return north for the first time since the war began. But that appears to be on hold pending Yehoud’s release.
Twenty-seven other hostages are meant to be released in the six-week first phase of the ceasefire, along with hundreds more Palestinian prisoners. The next hostage release is supposed to happen next Saturday.
What happens after the first phase is uncertain, but many hope it will lead to ending the war that has displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s population and left hundreds of thousands of people at the risk of famine.
The Oct. 7 cross-border attack led by Hamas killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 others hostage. More than 100 hostages were freed in a weeklong truce the following month. Israel believes at least a third of the more than 90 captives still inside Gaza were killed in the initial attack or died in captivity.
“It’s hard that she’s still there,” said Yoni Collins, a family friend of Berger, the fifth female soldier taken from Nahal Oz base. “There were five girls, four are out and now she’s there alone.”
Israel’s air and ground war has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not say how many were militants. They say women and children make up more than half the fatalities.
