Four Red Cross vehicles had arrived ahead of the handover and are with the Israeli forces [GETTY]
Hamas on Saturday handed over to the Red Cross four Israeli women soldiers under a truce deal in the war on Gaza that is also expected to see a second group of Palestinian released by Israel.
An AFP journalist witnessed the handover after the four were presented on a stage at a main square in Gaza City, where dozens of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fighters had gathered earlier.
Prior to being taken by the Red Cross, the captives were taken onto a stage dressed in military uniforms, where they appeared to smile and wave at the crowds.
On a stage flanked by pickup trucks mounted with high-calibre guns, a Red Cross staff member in a bright red cargo vest sat at a desk alongside a masked Hamas fighter in the group’s distinctive headband and camouflage fatigues.
Behind them stood the Palestine Shopping Centre, pockmarked with the scars of Israeli bombings and adorned with a giant Palestinian flag.
The two men signed “release certificates” for the soldiers, with a sign beneath them adorned with the emblems of the Israeli military and security services and the accompanying message in Hebrew: “Zionism will not prevail”.
Four Red Cross vehicles had arrived ahead of the handover and are now with the Israeli forces.
On Saturday, Palestinian sources said Israel is to free 200 Palestinian detainees in exchange for the captives.
According to the Israeli Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a campaign group, the women released are Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, and Naama Levy, all aged 20, and Liri Albag, 19.
They had been held captive for over 15 months since the 7 October attacks.
Palestinians displaced by the war in southern Gaza should be able to begin returning to the north following Saturday’s releases, Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau based in Qatar, told AFP on Friday.
The truce has also led to a surge of food, fuel, medical and other aid into rubble-strewn Gaza, but Israel’s UN ambassador on Friday confirmed that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Gaza’s main aid agency, must end all operations in Israel by Thursday.
The captive-prisoner exchange is part of a fragile ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that took effect last Sunday and which is intended to pave the way to a permanent end to the war.
Mediators Qatar and the United States announced the agreement days ahead of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Trump has since claimed credit for securing the deal after months of fruitless negotiations.
Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, said on Telegram Friday that “as part of the prisoners’ exchange deal, the Qassam brigades decided to release tomorrow four women soldiers”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed it had received the names through mediators.
‘Worry and fear’
According to Israel’s prison service, some of the Palestinians released will go to Gaza, with the rest returning to the occupied West Bank.
The ceasefire agreement should be implemented in three phases, but the last two stages have not yet been finalised.
“The worry and fear that the deal will not be implemented to the end is eating away at all of us,” said Vicky Cohen, the mother of captive Nimrod Cohen.
In Gaza, families displaced by more than a year of war longed to return home, but many will find only rubble where houses once stood.
During the first 42-day phase that began Sunday, 33 captives Israel believes are still alive should be freed in staggered releases in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians held — many without charge — in Israeli jails.
Three captives, Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher, returned home on the first day of the truce.
Ninety Palestinians, mostly women and minors, were released in exchange.
The deal’s second phase is to see negotiations for a more permanent end to the war, but analysts have warned it risks collapsing because of the deal’s multi-phase nature and deep distrust between Israel and Hamas.
During the 7 October attacks, 251 people were taken captive, 91 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.
Israel’s offensive has killed at least 47,283 people in Gaza, a majority of civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
