Four female Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from a southern military base 477 days ago were freed Saturday morning in the second hostage exchange under the ongoing Gaza cease-fire deal.
The women — Karina Ariev, 20; Daniella Gilboa, 20; Naama Levy, 20; and Liri Albag, 19 — were received by the International Committee of the Red Cross, who coordinated with Hamas to secure the handover in Gaza City.
During the exchange, Hamas brought the women onto a stage in Gaza City, where they smiled and waved while surrounded by cheering onlookers and gun-toting terrorists.
The women were likely forced to engage in the pleasantries, as previously released hostages have said they were kept in harsh conditions and forced to record propaganda videos for the terror group.
The release comes six days after Israel received the first three hostages released once the initial phase of the cease-fire deal went into effect, bringing fighting in the brutal 15-month war to a halt.
The women appeared to be holding paper bags, similar to the ones the first group of released hostages toted upon their release, which were reportedly “gifted” by Hamas and held photos from their time in captivity along with “release decision” certificates.
In exchange for their freedom, the Israeli Prison Service said it released over 200 Palestinian convicts from its prisons, including roughly 120 who were serving life sentences for deadly attacks on Israelis. Around 70 were taken to Egypt in exile, according to the state-run Qahera TV.
Family members of the newly-freed hostages exploded with tears of joy and clapped while watching the handoff from a nearby military base across the border, video shared by the IDF showed. The soldiers were reunited with them soon after, according to the military, and will be received medical examinations at a central Israeli hospital, the country’s health ministry said.
“A sense of relief and happiness envelops us after 477 long and unbearable days of nerve-wracking waiting,” Albag’s family said, according to The Times of Israel.
“We were finally able to see Liri, hug her and know that she is with us, in her safe place, surrounded by the love of her family.”
Under the first phase of the truce, the two sides now will continue weekly exchanges for another five weeks, with Israel set to receive a total of 33 hostages, the majority alive, in exchange for releasing hundreds Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
Of the roughly 90 people still held hostage in Gaza by terrorists, the Jewish state believes at least a third are dead.
The latest handoff faced an 11th-hour crisis Friday after Hamas announced it would be releasing four IDF soldiers despite two female civilians remaining in captivity in Gaza — Arbel Yehud, 29, and Shiri Silberman Bibas, 33 — prompting Israel to accuse the terror group of violating the terms of the cease-fire deal.
According to Israel, the terror group was to release all female civilians before any female IDF soldiers, although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli leaders ultimately decided the terror group’s breach wasn’t worth blowing up the precarious cease-fire deal over.
Netanyahu’s office said Yehud, who was kidnapped from her home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, was supposed to have been among those freed Saturday, although she is believed to be held by the terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, not Hamas, which complicated her release, The Times of Israel reported, citing Israel’s Channel 12.
A Hamas official said Yehud would be included in next week’s swap, but because of the deal violation, Israel is not allowing Palestinians to return to portions of Gaza until she is returned.
“As per the agreement, Israel will not allow the passage of Gazans to the north of the Strip — until the release of the civilian Arbel Yehud, who was supposed to be released today, is arranged,” the prime minister’s office said.
IDF Spokesperson RADM Daniel Hagari said Saturday that Israel’s mission “is not over until every hostage comes home.”
He said the remaining hostages are being held in “brutal conditions.”
“Hamas failed to meet its obligations to first release Israeli female civilian hostages as part of the agreement,” said Hagari. “Troops will continue to be deployed and operate and to do everything — everything — to protect the citizens of Israel.”
All four hostages released Saturday had been surveillance soldiers kidnapped from the Nahal Oz military base on the Gaza border during Hamas’ brutal attack on Oct. 7, 2023. A fifth soldier who was abducted alongside them, Agam Berger, 20, is still being held in captivity.
Albag, from central Israel’s Moshav Yarhiv, had been featured in a Hamas propaganda video released January saying she was “living in a nightmare” and pleading for the Israeli government’s rescue.
Her family at the time said that the twisted footage had “torn our hearts to pieces” and begged Israel’s leaders to act on the hostages’ fate “as if your children were there.”
Gilboa, from Petah Tikva, and Ariev, of Jerusalem, also were seen in a separate propaganda video created by the terror group in January 2024, along with Doron Steinbrecher, who was among the trio of hostages freed in the first exchange.
Levy, of Ra’anana, had aspirations for working in diplomacy, and has been a member of an organization that promoted peace between Israeli, Palestinian and US youth according to her mother, Ayelet Levy Sachar.
The morning of the attack, she sent her mother a final text that she was in a safe room, only to be seen later in a disturbing Hamas video being dragged barefoot by a gun-toting terrorist into the backseat of a Jeep, her hands bound and sweatpants covered in blood.
“The images of your abduction broadcast to the world are images that I cannot unsee,” her mother wrote in an open letter, adding, “It’s too much for a mother to bear.”
In exchange for hostage’s freedom, the Jewish state released a number of notorious Palestinian terrorists. Among them were Mohammad Odeh, 52, and Wael Qassim, 54, who were serving life sentences for conducting a slew of deadly attacks on Israelis, including 2002 bombing at a cafeteria at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem that killed nine people, including five US citizens.
Looming ahead is the requirement for Israel and Hamas to begin on hashing out the details for the next phase of the ceasefire deal, which was broadly outlined as seeing all the remaining hostages released and achieving a permanent cease-fire in Gaza.
The negotiations, however, are rife with sticking points for both sides, which could ultimately lead to the cease-fire deal’s collapse.
Israel has repeatedly said it would not completely pull out from Gaza until Hamas relinquishes all of its military and political control of the region, while the terror group insists it wouldn’t hand over the remaining hostages until Israel’s forces leave the territory.
Netanyahu also is facing pressure from his hard-line coalition partners who have threatened to upend the Israeli government if he doesn’t restart the war in Gaza at the end of the six-week pause. Meanwhile, President Trump’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, who reportedly was crucial in cementing the ceasefire deal, told Fox News that the commander-in-chief is hoping Israel and Hamas make it to the second stage.
The cease-fire deal, which was nearly derailed at the 11th hour, brought a temporary calm to the conflict sparked by Hamas’ bloody surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, where the terror group and its allies killed about 1,200 people and dragged another 251 back to Gaza as hostages.
Over 47,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s subsequent military siege, according to Hamas-run Gazan health officials — who do not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
With Post wires
