Hamas handed over four captive female Israeli soldiers to the Red Cross in Gaza City on Saturday. Israel was set to release 200 Palestinian prisoners or detainees later in the day as part of the fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Crowds had earlier begun to gather in Tel Aviv and Gaza City ahead of the expected swap between Israel and Hamas, the second such exchange since a ceasefire began in the Gaza Strip last weekend and another test for the deal.
The truce is aimed at winding down the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and the group. The fragile deal has so far held, quieting airstrikes and rockets and allowing for increased aid to flow into the tiny coastal territory.
In Tel Aviv's Hostages Square, a big screen showed the faces of the four female soldiers expected to be released. Some in the growing crowd wore Israeli flags, others held posters with the hostages' faces.
“I’m extremely excited, exhilarated,” said onlooker Gili Roman. “In a heartbeat, in a split of a second, their lives are going to turn upside again, but right now for a positive and a good side.”
He said his sister was released in the only other ceasefire in November, but another relative was killed in captivity.
When the ceasefire started Sunday, three hostages held by Hamas were released in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners, all women and children. On Saturday, four hostages are expected to be freed for 200 prisoners, including 120 who are serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks on Israelis. They will likely be released into Gaza or sent abroad.
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 Palestinian fighters 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.
Israel's military issued a statement Saturday morning saying that preparations had been completed to receive the hostages and provide them medical care and personal support at the initial reception points, then transfer them to hospitals and reunite them with their families.
In Gaza City's central Palestine Square, a crowd began to gather early as gunmen worked to cordon off an area where the hostages were expected to be handed over to the Red Cross.
Dozens of armed and masked fighters also paraded in vehicles through the streets of the city, said resident Radwan Abu Rawiya who was part of the Palestine Square crowd.
Children ran alongside the vehicles as celebratory gunfire rang out, he said in a telephone interview.
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.
The Hamas-run interior ministry said displaced Palestinians will be allowed to return to northern Gaza starting Sunday.
In a statement Saturday, the ministry, which oversees police forces, said Palestinians will be able to move between southern and northern Gaza on foot through the coastal Rashid road.
What happens after the deal’s initial six-week phase is uncertain, but many hope it will lead to the end of a war that has leveled wide swaths of Gaza, displaced the vast majority of its population and left hundreds of thousands of people at risk of famine.
The conflict began with a cross-border attack led by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, when fighters 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. But dozens have remained in captivity for over a year with no contact with the outside world. 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.
Israel's air and ground war, one of the deadliest and most destructive in decades, has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who do not say how many were fighters. They say women and children make up more than half the fatalities.
