Four female soldier hostages freed by Hamas, paraded on stage, returned to Israel

Four female soldiers held hostage by Hamas for 477 days — Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, and Liri Albag — were released by the terror group on Saturday after being paraded through a Gaza City square before being handed over to the Red Cross.

The release marked the second set of hostages to go free under the latest ceasefire-hostage deal. Israel was later to free 200 Palestinian security prisoners, including dozens serving life sentences for murder and terror.

Crowds of Palestinians gathered early in the morning in the same central square in Gaza City where Romi Gonen, 24, Emily Damari, 28, and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, were released last week.

However, the chaotic scenes of that release were not repeated, with Saturday’s handover heavily stage-managed by Hamas.

Dozens of armed and masked Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad gunmen formed a cordon around a stage that had been set up in the square. A drone could be seen distributing candy to members of the crowd.

After the arrival of the Red Cross vehicles, the four hostages were brought into the square in separate vehicles. Dressed in olive garb meant to look like IDF uniforms and clutching “gift bags” from Hamas, the young women were marched onto a stage festooned with slogans in English and Arabic like  “Palestine: The victory of the oppressed people vs the Nazi Zionism.”

A large sign in Hebrew also read “Zionism will not win.”

All four of the women appeared in good physical condition as they went up on stage, holding hands, waving to the crowd and smiling before being escorted by masked gunmen into the waiting Red Cross vehicles.

Their appearance was in stark contrast to the images of the young soldiers seen after they were captured on October 7, 2023, at the Nahal Oz military base, bloodied and frightened as they were dragged into Gaza in their pajamas.

Ariev, 20, Gilboa, 20, Levy, 20 and Albag, 19, were then taken by the Red Cross and handed over to IDF special forces who escorted them across the border, back home into Israel to an IDF facility where they were reunited with their families and undewent a brief medical check.

“They are in safe hands and on their way home,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a televised statement.

IDF slams cynical Hamas

Hagari slammed Hamas for the way in which the handover was done.

“Hamas is a murderous terror group. In the last few hours, Hamas proved its cruelty by organizing a cynical ceremony,” he said, adding that Hamas “presented a misrepresentation of treatment and care for the hostages, while in reality, it is cruelly holding for 477 days innocent civilians.”

“The mission will not end until all of them return to Israel,” he added.

The military said that the four were checked by army doctors when they were handed over to the IDF by the Red Cross inside Gaza and were in relatively good physical condition.

“Their medical condition is normal, with no findings that require special medical intervention on the ground,” officials said. They will undergo further assessments by doctors and mental health officers at an army base near the border, before being taken to a hospital.

Tears of joy

Video showed their families at the IDF facility near Re’im clapping, cheering and crying with joy as they watched their loved ones emerge from the Hamas vehicles.

Joy in Hostages Square

Hundreds of people gathered in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, watching a livestream of the release while friends and families of the four watched from their homes.

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.

The friends and families of the four released hostages expressed their joy.

“Yes! Yes! Yes! Liri the hero,” Albag’s friends told the Ynet news site. “We saw Liri coming back. She waved her hand and she seems fine. It’s crazy. We were really worried, but she’s a hero with a huge smile.”

Gilboa’s family told Channel 12 news that they were elated to see her walk out of the Hamas vehicle.

“She is a hero. We were so happy to see her on her feet,” they say.

One of Levy’s friends told Ynet that the four women were “amazing” and that they had been concerned that they would not be on their feet.

“I have no words to describe the feelings now to see Naama back on her feet along with three other amazing, heroic girls,” the unnamed friend said.

“We don’t know what she went through there, and we can only imagine the hell. I thought the worst, I dreamed that she was coming out in the worst possible condition, sitting or lying down or worse,” the friend said.

Despite the joy, concern remained, particularly for other hostages who are on the list to be freed.

Violating the deal

Hagari said Hamas violated the hostage agreement with the release of the four female soldiers before releasing all civilian women. “Hamas did not abide by its obligation in the deal to free civilian women first,” he said.

Hagari said Israel will make sure that civilian hostage Arbel Yehud, who is believed by Israel to be alive, is released soon, along with Shiri Bibas and her children, “who we have heavy concerns for their fate.”

He said Israel expects more information on the Bibas family soon.

Hagari also said the military is “committed to the return of” Agam Berger, another surveillance soldier kidnapped on October 7, 2023, and all the other hostages.

The five are among seven female soldiers abducted from the IDF surveillance unit at the Nahal Oz army base during the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, 2023.

One of the abducted surveillance soldiers was later rescued alive, and the body of a second one was recovered after she was murdered in captivity.

Following the return of the four soldiers to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying that due to Hamas not standing by its obligation to release Yehud, Israel would delay allowing Palestinians to return to the northern Gaza Strip.

“Israel has received four female hostage soldiers from the Hamas terrorist group today, and in return will release security prisoners” according to the deal, the PMO said.

“In accordance with the agreement, Israel will not allow the passage of Gazans to the north of the Gaza Strip, until the release of civilian Arbel Yehud, who was supposed to be released today, can be arranged,” the statement added.

The decision was reportedly taken during security consultations held by Netanyahu on Friday night, soon after Hamas had released the names of the four female soldiers it was freeing, but announced after the releases so as not to jeopardize them.

The announcement means that, as things stand, the IDF will not be withdrawing from part of the Netzarim Corridor on Sunday.

Under the deal, Israel was supposed to withdraw from the northern half of the corridor on day seven of the ceasefire to allow Palestinians to return to north Gaza via the coastal road.

Israel had conveyed to Hamas that it expected Yehud — who is thought to be held by fellow terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad — to be released this weekend. However, she was not named by Hamas on Friday. Yehud had been on the list to be released in the only previous hostage-truce deal, in November 2023, but the deal collapsed before the final scheduled group of releases.

Hamas is expected to provide Israel with details on the status of the 26 remaining hostages on the list later Saturday, providing long-sought specifics on which hostages are alive. There was concern in Jerusalem, however, that Hamas might merely provide an overall number of how many of the 26 are alive.

Terrorists to be freed and deported

Following the scheduled release of the hostages on Saturday, Israel is set to free another batch of Palestinian security prisoners. The agreement stipulates that for each of the female soldiers, Israel will release 50 Palestinian prisoners, 30 of them convicted terrorists who are serving life sentences.

Hamas said that around 70 are set to be deported, but did not say where, while the rest will be sent to the West Bank and Gaza. Hebrew media said the deported prisoners would first go to Egypt and then be sent to Turkey, Algeria and Tunisia.

Terrorists being released include Mohammad Odeh, 52, and Wael Qassim, 54, both from East Jerusalem. They were jailed for carrying out a series of 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 US citizens.

It is believed that 87 of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas has so far released seven hostages during the current ceasefire. The terror group released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.

Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.

Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January.