Hamas released four soldiers on Saturday in a hostage-for-prisoner swap, more than a year after the women were taken captive during the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, which started the war.
The hostage version is part of a 42-day ceasefire agreement This took effect on Sunday, halting fighting between Israel and Hamas. Hamas agreed to gradually release 33 of nearly 100 remaining hostages in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinians imprisoned by Israel and a partial Israeli withdrawal.
The young women worked as “spotters” for Israel’s military, reporting suspicious activity across the border. During the Hamas-led attack, militants stormed the Nahal Oz military base in Israel, killing more than 50 soldiers and kidnapping the women, all teenagers at the time, and three other soldiers.
In May, the Israeli army released a Edited collection of three minutes of videosverified by the New York Times, showing Palestinian fighters, some wearing Hamas headbands, tying the hands of five women, all four of whom walked out on Saturday. The footage was recorded by body cameras worn by the Hamas militants who kidnapped them, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents relatives of many of the captives.
Here’s what else we know about the four freed hostages:
Liri Albag
In January, the military wing of Hamas published an edited video of Ms. Albag, now 19, speaking for three and a half minutes, in which she said she had been detained for more than 450 days.
In a statement, Ms Albag’s family said her “severe psychological distress is evident” in the video and asked leaders to “make decisions as if your own children were there”.
“She is only tens of kilometers from us, but for 456 days we could not bring her home,” the family said.
Karina Ariev
Ms. Ariev, now 20, called her parents during the attack, describing militants firing guns and rockets, and told them she loved them, according to Israeli news media. Her family later that day found a Hamas video posted on social media that showed Ms Ariev and two other women in a jeep – her face bleeding, they said.
In August, after Ms. Ariev turned 20 in captivity, Ms. Ariev’s older sister, Sasha Ariev, said at an event in Jerusalem that she had moved home after the October 7 attack to help her struggling parents who were feeling increasingly helpless and struggling to maintain hope.
She said the hostage crisis consumed her. “How can I sleep when we failed to bring Karina and all the other hostages home?” She said. “How can I sleep when I’m in my bed and she’s a hostage?
Daniella Gilboa
Daniella Gilboa, 20, is from Petah Tikva, in central Israel. In July, Ms. Gilboa’s family released a Hamas-made video they had received months earlier, which showed him and Mrs. Ariev in captivity.
In an interview with Maariv, an Israeli newspaper, the father of Ms. Gilboa’s boyfriend said the family felt mixed emotions over the video. “In his family, there is a sense of relief alongside a sense of disappointment,” he said.
Naama Levy
Naama Levy, who is also 20, texted her mother in a safe room on the day of the attack, according to a website focused on advocating for her release. “I’ve never heard anything like it, ” She wrote. A Hamas video of her being taken to Gaza circulated on social media shortly after the attack.
In an interview for a documentary about sexual violence during the attack, Ayelet Levy Sachar, Naama’s mother, spoke about her daughter’s kidnapping. She was seen in a Hamas video in pajama bottoms, drenched in blood.
“They grab her by the hair, and she’s all, like, messed up,” she said, adding, “We’d like to think that couldn’t be possible.” That no one would hurt a young girl. But then you see it there.
