A second round of prisoners are to be exchanged between Hamas and Israel on Saturday as part of a ceasefire.
The names of the four female Israeli soldiers who will be exchanged on Saturday for Palestinian prisoners have been released by Hamas.
This is the second of such exchanges that are to run the course of the first two phases of a three-stage ceasefire agreed this month.
Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag were all taken prisoner on October 7, 2023, during Hamas-led assaults on army outposts and villages in southern Israel. They will now be exchanged for 200 of the roughly 1,800 Palestinian prisoners waiting to be released from Israeli prisons during the first six-week phase of the Hamas-Israel ceasefire, which came into effect on Sunday.
Under the terms of the agreement, Israel agreed to release 50 Palestinian prisoners for each Israeli soldier being held in Gaza and 30 for any of the other female captives during the first phase of the ceasefire. The remaining captives will be released during the second phase of the agreement, negotiations for which are due to commence on February 4.
A third phase is intended to focus on the rebuilding and long-term governance of Gaza.
What do we know about the female Israeli soldiers set to be released?
Ariev, 20, was serving at the Nahal Oz army base, about 1km (0.6 miles) from the boundary with Gaza at the time of her abduction. In July – hoping to put pressure on the Israeli government, which many of the captives’ families felt was stalling on their release – her parents released an image provided to them by Hamas purporting to show Ariev during her first few days of captivity.
In the undated image, Ariev can be seen sitting with her head bandaged alongside Albag, Agam Berger and Gilboa, who also had a bandage on her head.
She was later identified by her parents from a video published on Telegram that day by Hamas. Her abduction was confirmed by the Israeli military about 48 hours later
Gilboa, 20, was also at the Nahal Oz base. Gilboa featured in a video released by Hamas in July, appealing to the Israeli government to bring her and the other captives home.
Levy, 19 at the time of her capture and now 20, had just begun her military service when Hamas attacked, the BBC quoted her mother as saying. Hours after her abduction, she appeared in a Hamas video that showed her being bundled into a Jeep.
Albag, 19, was serving as an army lookout at the Nahal Oz base. She was believed by her family to have been hiding from a rocket barrage in a field shelter during the Hamas-led attack. Albag was later identified in a Telegram video of captives published by Hamas that day.
Of the female soldiers taken, only 21-year-old Berger will remain in captivity if Saturday’s exchange goes as planned. Three other female soldiers were released in the initial exchange on Sunday.
What was the response to the first prisoner exchange?
It was mixed.
Many people in the occupied West Bank celebrated the release of 90 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons early on Monday – 69 women and 21 children. Many people showed their elation at being reunited with family members and friends. Crowds carried released prisoners over their heads while cheers and whistles accompanied them.
Amanda Abu Sharkh, 23, had come just to see the arrival in Ramallah of the Red Cross buses carrying the prisoners. “We came here to witness it and feel the emotions, just like the families of the prisoners who are being released today,” Abu Sharkh told the AFP news agency.
“All the prisoners being released today feel like family to us. They are part of us, even if they’re not blood relatives,” she said.
In contrast, the intense relief of many Israelis over Sunday’s return of Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher and Emily Damari was mixed with anger and resentment from a sizeable minority who saw the exchange as a defeat in Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed at least 47,283 Palestinians.
In the West Bank, the Israeli military began a raid on Tuesday on the town and refugee camp of Jenin, and incensed Israeli settlers targeted six villages that they had identified as being where the released Palestinian women and children are from, attacking houses, shops, cars and buses with firebombs.
Why did Israeli forces order Palestinians not to celebrate the releases?
They were worried about how that would look.
There have been several reports of police visiting the homes of Palestinian prisoners, removing flags, signs and sweets and ejecting anyone, including journalists, who are not close family members. Scuffles between journalists covering the delight of Palestinians having family members returned have also been reported.
Family members of released prisoners were also reported to have been summoned to police stations and warned against organising celebrations or marches to mark their releases. Family members also told Israel’s Haaretz newspaper that they had been instructed by police not to comment about the releases on social media or to grant media interviews.
Israeli determination to avoid the exchange being framed as a defeat also extended to the prisoners themselves. Rula Hassanein, who was released on Monday, told of how the women had been forced to kneel on the ground for hours before they were freed and watch a looped 90-second video that told them: “This is not a victory for you. We have destroyed and killed in Gaza, in Yemen, in Syria, in Iran. We killed [your] leadership,” she recalled.
“We were not allowed to look left or right, only at the screen,” she told CNN.
