Hamas to release four Israeli hostages in truce swap Saturday

by Jay Deshmukh and Dan Capurro

Hamas was set Saturday to release four Israeli women soldiers held hostage since its October 7, 2023 attack, under a truce deal in the Gaza war that is also expected to see a second group of Palestinian prisoners freed.

Israel confirmed Friday that it had received a list of names of hostages who are due to return home, though neither side has specified how many Palestinians will be released from Israeli detention if everything goes to plan.

According to the Israeli Hostage and Missing Families Forum, the women due for release are Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag.

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Albag turned 19 while in captivity, while the others are all now 20 years old.

The 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 conflict.

Mediators Qatar and the United States announced the agreement days ahead of US President Donald Trump's inauguration, and he has since claimed credit for securing it after months of fruitless negotiations.

Abu Obeida, the 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.

Palestinian sources told AFP the releases could begin before noon (1000 GMT), though neither Hamas nor Israel has issued a statement on expected timings.

According to Israel's prison service, some of the Palestinians released will go to Gaza, with the rest to return to the occupied West Bank.

Families of hostages held in Gaza since Hamas staged the deadliest attack in Israeli history awaited the return of their loved ones after 15 months of agony.

"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 hostage Nimrod Cohen.

In Gaza, families displaced by more than a year of war longed to return home, but many found only rubble where houses once stood.

"Even if we thought about returning, there is no place for us to put our tents because of the destruction," Theqra Qasem, a displaced woman, told AFP.

- Three phases -

The ceasefire agreement should be implemented in three phases.

During the first, 42-day phase that began last Sunday, 33 hostages Israel believed were still alive should be returned in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Three hostages -- Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher -- have already returned home.

Ninety Palestinians, mostly women and minors, were released in exchange.

The next phase should see negotiations for a more permanent end to the war, while the last phase should see the reconstruction of Gaza and the return of the bodies of dead hostages.

During their October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Hamas militants took 251 hostages, 91 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military has confirmed are dead.

The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory response has killed at least 47,283 people in Gaza, a majority civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, figures which the UN considers reliable.

- Return to the north -

Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas's political bureau based in Qatar, on Friday told AFP that Palestinians displaced by the war to southern Gaza should be able to begin returning to the north following Saturday's releases.

Hundreds of truckloads of aid have entered Gaza since the ceasefire began, but its distribution inside the devastated territory remains a huge challenge.

The needs are enormous, particularly in the north, where Israel kept up a major operation right up to the eve of the truce.

In hunger-stricken makeshift shelters set up in former schools, bombed-out houses and cemeteries, hundreds of thousands lack even plastic sheeting to protect from winter rains and biting winds, aid workers say.