The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) received four female Israeli soldiers as hostages from the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Saturday.
In front of dozens of armed Hamas members and a significant Palestinian crowd, the four were taken onto a podium in Gaza City. Before being brought away and placed in ICRC vans to be taken to Israeli forces, they smiled and waved.
Under a ceasefire deal meant to put an end to the 15-month-old conflict in Gaza, the four are being freed in return for a group of Palestinian prisoners.
The four soldiers, Karina Ariev, Daniela Gilboa, Naama Levy, and Liri Albag, were all assigned to an observation post on the outskirts of Gaza. On October 7, 2023, Hamas gunmen overran their base and kidnapped them.
200 inmates will be released on Saturday as part of the exchange, according to Hamas. Members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) are anticipated to be among them; several are serving life sentences.
In a statement, Hamas announced that 70 of the 200 Palestinian inmates who Israel would release on Saturday would be sent outside of Gaza and the West Bank.
After months of intermittent talks mediated by Qatar and Egypt with support from the US, the ceasefire deal has put an end to hostilities for the first time since a one-week truce in November 2023.
