Hamas hands over four female Israeli hostages to Red Cross in Gaza

The four Israeli soldiers, Karina Ariev, 20, Daniella Gilboa, 20, Naama Levy, 20, and Liri Albag, 19, were driven away from Gaza City’s central Palestine Square in International Red Cross vehicles on Saturday morning.

Crowds of Gazans who had gathered in the square watched as the hostages were released and put into the vehicles.

Before they were released a Red Cross delegate, sitting at a desk in view of the public and the media in the square, signed unidentified documents alongside a Hamas fighter.

Then, minutes later, the four were taken by Hamas gunmen up onto a stage where they waved to the crowd and the media.

The soldiers were captured by Hamas fighters from Nahal Oz base near the border with Gaza when they overran it on October 7 2023, 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 has prepared to receive the hostages and provide them medical deva and personal support at the initial reception points, then transfer them to hospitals and reunite them with their families.

In exchange for the four soldiers, Israel is scheduled to release 180 Palestinians from its prisons on Saturday.

Under the first phase of the ceasefire deal, a total of 33 hostages are expected to be released gradually in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, with additional humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

Israel estimates that approximately a third, or potentially as many as half, of the more than 90 hostages still in Gaza have died.

Hamas has not provided definitive numbers on the captives still alive or the names of those who have died, but it is expected to release further information about the remaining 26 hostages expected to be released in the upcoming weeks.

Our journalists are working on this developing story and updates will follow shortly.