Palestinian Hamas militants gather during the handover of hostages kidnapped by Hamas attacks on Israel as part of a ceasefire to members of the International Committee of the Red Cross, on October 7, 2023 , the hostage treat deal is a hostage deal between Hamas and Israel. , in Gaza City on January 19, 2025.
Davod craves Reuters
Palestinian militant movement Hamas is expected to release four Israeli soldiers on Saturday in exchange for a group of Palestinian prisoners under a ceasefire aimed at ending the 15-month-old war in Gaza.
The four soldiers – Karina Ariev, Daniela Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag – were all stationed at an observation post on the edge of Gaza and were kidnapped by Hamas fighters who captured the base during an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Hamas’ media office for prisoners said it expected to release 200 prisoners on Saturday as part of the exchange, including 120 serving sentences and 80 others serving lengthy sentences.
Their identities have not been published, but they may include members of militant groups convicted of deadly attacks that killed dozens of people.
Saturday’s exchange will be the second since the ceasefire began on Sunday, with Hamas handing over three Israeli civilians in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners. Live video showed armed Hamas men arriving at a Gaza City square ahead of the release.
Hamas on Friday identified four hostages to be released in a second exchange. But Israel has not officially commented and likely won’t until it actually receives them.
The Red Cross will receive them from Hamas in Gaza and hand them over to Israeli forces, who will transport them to Israel, where they will be reunited with their families, receive initial medical care and be taken to hospital. Another female soldier is expected to be released in the coming weeks.
Video of the four-man kidnapping aired in May showed the five conscripts being restrained, shocked, and somewhat bleeding, bound and bundled into a jeep by Pajama. The footage was recovered from a human body car worn by gunmen who attacked a base in the southern Israeli state of Nahal where women were serving as surveillance.
phased ceasefire
The ceasefire, which follows months of ad hoc negotiations between Qatar and Egypt and is backed by the United States, has halted fighting for the first time since a truce that lasted just a week in November 2023.
In the first six-week phase of the deal, Hamas agreed to release 33 hostages, including children, women, elderly men and the sick and injured, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in the Gaza Strip. .
In subsequent stages, the two sides will negotiate the exchange of the remaining hostages, including those of military age, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, which has been left largely in ruins and in the wake of Israeli bombing after 15 months of fighting.
Israel campaigned in Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attack in which militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli Sol . Since then, more than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to health authorities there.
On Sunday the release of hostages Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher and the recovery of the bodies of Israeli soldiers missing for a decade, Israel said , 94 Israelis and foreigners are still held in Gaza. About a third were declared absent by the Israeli authorities.
