Ruth Michaelson
The Guardian / January 25, 2025
Civilians and militants gather amid rubble to watch handover of four women held hostage for 15 months
Jerusalem – For the crowds of militants and civilians gathered in a central Gaza square to witness the handover of four Israeli soldiers held hostage for 15 months, the atmosphere was one of triumph and jubilation.
Hundreds of people gathered on the piles of rubble in Palestine Square, Gaza City, among flags of Palestinian militant groups, to watch a painstaking hostage handover, while in Tel Aviv crowds of Israelis gathered in suspense.
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The four Israeli soldiers – Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, and Liri Albag – briefly walked on to a podium in khaki military fatigues, smiling and holding hands, their long hair pulled into neat shiny ponytails. Two raised their hands to give a thumbs up towards the cheering crowds, before the group climbed into cars from the International Committee of the Red Cross to be driven out of Gaza.
In Tel Aviv, the families of Israelis who remain captive in Gaza flocked to a central square alongside their supporters to watch live footage of the handover, some weeping with joy and cheering. A few waved Israeli flags, while others held pictures of female Israeli soldiers and other captives expected to be released. Video released of the soldiers’ families watching the handover at a military base showed them shrieking with joy.
Four Israeli soldiers freed by Hamas are reunited with their families – video
Lines of masked, uniformed fighters from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad – groups that hold people taken hostage on 7 October 2023 – flanked the square in central Gaza City, with Palestinian flags strung overhead. A woman threw confetti over the crowds of militants in celebration.
In a show of their capabilities after months of war, columns of militants stood among the crowds with shiny white cars decked in flags and ringed the square in their dozens, putting automatic weapons on the car rooftops.
The four Israeli soldiers were handed to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and flown by helicopter to a hospital in Israel for initial checks. They are expected to be taken to a second facility to meet their families for the first time in 15 months.
The group were among an all-female surveillance unit within the IDF, taken captive at the Nahal Oz base, close to the Gaza border that they had been watching for months before their capture.
Families of other female soldiers captured that day said their daughters had reported suspicious training activity as Hamas militants prepared for the 7 October attack on Israeli towns and kibbutzim, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 250 were taken hostage. Their reports were ignored, they said, until that morning 15 months ago when the militants overran their base and took five women from their unit into Gaza.
More than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, the longest war in Israel’s history.
Israeli sources estimate that between one-third and half of the remaining 90 captives are alive, amid calls from the families of those held for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his government to stick to the ceasefire agreement and ensure the release of all the remaining captives.
That agreement appeared briefly in doubt on Friday night after Hamas said it would release the four female IDF soldiers, rather than the remaining female civilians. Israeli media reported that security officials from the Israeli government initially ruled this to be a breach of the ceasefire agreement, but that they would proceed with the exchange.
Israeli officials had requested the release of the German-Israeli citizen Arbel Yehoud, aged 28 at the time of her capture, who is one of the last female civilians held in Gaza. Yehoud is reportedly held by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad rather than Hamas, complicating her potential handover and release. Al Jazeera reported that Palestinian sources said Yehoud was alive.
Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that Israel would not allow Palestinians to return to the northern Gaza Strip until Yehoud was released. Two-hundred Palestinians held in two Israeli prisons are expected to be released later on Saturday as part of the agreement, it said.
Israeli forces were due to withdraw from a military checkpoint that has separated Gaza City from the remainder of the territory for months, allowing Palestinians to return to northern Gaza for the first time in more than a year.
“In accordance with the agreement, Israel will not allow the passage of Gazans to the north of the Gaza Strip, until the release of civilian Arbel Yehoud, who was supposed to be released today,” Netanyahu’s office said.
The family of Shiri Bibas (33) – who may be the other remaining female civilian hostage in Gaza – said they were dismayed that her name was not on the list of captives to be released.
“Once again, we found no rest last night,” they said. “Yesterday … when the list of those set for release was published, our world collapsed. Even though we were prepared for this possibility, we had hoped to see Shiri and the children on the list that was supposed to be for civilian women.”
Bibas was taken hostage on 7 October 2023 alongside her husband, Yarden, and her two children, five-year-old Ariel and two-year-old Kfir, who are the youngest hostages held in Gaza.
R Adm Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the IDF, said: “Hamas failed to meet its obligations to first release Israeli female civilians as part of the agreement.” He added that there was “extreme concern” for the welfare of Bibas and her family.
Ruth Michaelson is a journalist based in Istanbul
