Four women Israeli soldiers who had been held hostage by Hamas safely returned to Israel on Saturday after the activists paraded them in front of a crowd of thousands of people in Gaza City, and then put them back to the Red Cross. In exchange, Israel released 200 Palestinian prisoners as part of the fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
The four Israelis smiled widely when they greeted and gave the boost on a stage in the Palestine square in Gaza City, activists on each side and a crowd of thousands of people before being led to Red cross vehicles pending. They probably acted under constraint, with previously published hostages saying that they had been held in brutal conditions and forced to record propaganda videos.
Israel’s penitentiary service later said that he had finished the release of 200 Palestinians. They included 121 who had been perpetuity after being found guilty of deadly attacks against the Israelis. About 70 were released in Egypt, according to the Qahera State TV managed by Egypt. Egypt had served as a key mediator in the talks that led to the truce.
Thousands of Palestinians gathered in the western city of the Cisjordanie de Ramallah to celebrate the arrival of the buses bearing the prisoners. Many have signaled Palestinian flags or flags of different political factions.
While the four Israelis have been released, hundreds of people applauded on Tel Aviv’s hostages where they watched the drama take place on a large screen TV.
“I had goosebumps to look at them,” said Aviv Bercovich, one of the spectators. “I just want war to end.”
The released hostages were taken to a base of the Israeli army, where they were gathered with their parents, and could be seen in photos tightening them emotionally.
As they arrived by helicopter in a hospital such as Aviv, thousands of people dancing and celebrating outside raised their eyes to see them land.
Israel insists on the release of a civil hostage
The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would not allow the displaced Palestinians to start returning to the north of Gaza, who was to start on Sunday, because a civil hostage which was to be released by Hamas had not been released .
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He said that Israel would not allow Palestinians to start returning to northern Gaza, who was to start on Sunday, until Arbel Yehoud was released.
A senior Hamas official said that the group had informed the mediators that Yehoud would be released next week.
In the meantime, an Egyptian official involved in negotiations has described the question of “minor problem” that mediators work to solve. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to discuss the issue publicly.
It was the second exchange of this type between Israel and Hamas since the start of a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip last weekend. The excitement in Israel has been palpable, with television channels filled with live reports from the anchors of smiling news and journalists interviewing ecstatic friends and parents of the hostages.
The truce aims to liquidate the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and the militant group. The fragile agreement has so far kept, calms the air strikes and the rockets and allowing increased help to flow into the tiny coastal territory.
When the ceasefire started on Sunday, three hostages held by activists were released in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners, all women and children.
Who are the soldiers and the released prisoners?
The four Israeli soldiers, Karina Ariev, 20, Daniella Gilboa, 20, Naama Levy, 20, and Albag, 19, were captured in the attack on October 7, 2023 of Hamas who sparked the war.
In exchange, Israel agreed to release 200 prisoners, including 121 which served perpetuity sentences, according to a list published by Hamas.
The most notorious released activists include Mohammad Odeh, 52, and Wael Qassim, 54, both from East Jerusalem. They were accused of having led a series of deadly Hamas attacks against the Israelis, including a bombing to a cafeteria of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2002 who killed nine people, including five American citizens.
Of the 70s which have been expelled in Egypt, some could possibly go to other countries, with Algeria, Tunisia and Turkey expressing all the desire to welcome them, according to Abdullah al-Zaghari, head of a group of Defense of Palestinian prisoners.
The four liberated Israeli soldiers were taken from the Nahal Oz base near the border with Gaza when Palestinian activists invaded him, killing more than 60 soldiers. A fifth female soldier of their unit, Agam Berger, 20, was removed with them but not included in the list.
“It’s huge,” said Radwan Abu Rawiya, a resident from Gaza City, Abu Rawiya, one of the thousands of people who watched the hostages turn back on Palestine square.
“People have forgotten war, destruction and celebrate,” he said.
In a television statement, the Israeli army spokesman, the Counter-Admiral. Daniel Hagari, criticized what he called the “cynical” public demonstration of young women by Hamas before their release.
He also said that Israel was concerned about the fate of the two youngest hostages – Kfir and Ariel Bibas – and their mother Shiri. Kfir Bibas marked his second anniversary in captivity earlier this month.
Hagari said the army has committed to bringing all the hostages home.
What is the next step in the ceasefire agreement
Israel had to start back from the Corridor of Netzarim – an east -west road dividing Gaza in two – and allowing the Palestinians displaced from the South to return to their old houses in the North for the first time since the start of the war.
But that seems to be pending while waiting for the release of Yehoud.
The Interior Ministry managed by Hamas said the displaced Palestinians would be allowed to return to northern Gaza from Sunday.
What is happening after the initial phase of six weeks of the agreement is uncertain, but many hope that this will lead to the end of a war which leveled large bands of Gaza, moved the vast majority of its population and left hundreds of thousands of people at risk of risking famine.
The conflict began with a cross -border attack led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, when Palestinian activists killed some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and took around 250 others hostage.
More than 100 hostages were released in a truce of a week the following month. But dozens have remained in captivity for more than a year without contact with the outside world. Israel thinks that at least a third of the more than 90 captives inside Gaza were killed during the initial attack or died in captivity.
While many have rejoiced in the hostage’s place of Tel Aviv after the release of the four soldiers on Saturday, some were worried about the fate of those who are still in captivity.
“It is difficult for her to be there,” said Yoni Collins, a friend of the shepherd’s family, the fifth soldier woman from the base of Nahal Oz.
“There were five daughters, four came out and now she’s alone,” he said. “We are just waiting for her to come home.”
One of the deadliest and destructive decades of Israel and the most destructive decades has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to local health, who do not say how many activists. They say that women and children represent more than half of the deaths.
