Scenes of jubilation and emotion greeted Saturday in Israel the release of four soldiers hostage in Gaza since October 7 and in the occupied West Bank that of 200 Palestinian prisoners, in an exchange provided for by the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
In the Gaza Strip, however, a last-minute dispute still blocked in the afternoon the planned return to the north of the territory of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants displaced by more than 15 months of war.
This second exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners comes almost a week after the entry into force of a truce in the devastated Palestinian territory plunged into a serious humanitarian crisis.
| © AFP The four Israeli hostages to be released are presented on a podium before being handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza City, January 25, 2025 |
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas carefully staged the handover of the four young women to the Red Cross in Gaza City, which then transferred them to the Israeli army.
On their arrival in Israel, Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, Liri Albag and Naama Levy found their parents for long embraces, photos of which the army released. They were then transferred by helicopter to a hospital near Tel Aviv, according to the army. The hospital said they were in “stable condition.”
Israel, for its part, announced that it had released 200 Palestinians from its prisons, in accordance with the truce agreement.
Before being taken into care by the Red Cross, the young women were presented on a podium, in front of a crowd flanked by fighters in fatigues and hooded from the military branches of Hamas and allied Islamic Jihad.
Smiling, dressed in khaki uniforms and appearing in good health, they greeted the gathered residents, before entering white 4X4s.
Aged 19 to 20, Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, Liri Albag and Naama Levy were carrying out their military service, assigned to surveillance of the Gaza Strip, when they were kidnapped.
“Sitting in front of the ruins”
| © AFP Palestinian prisoners just released by Israel in exchange for the release of four female soldiers held hostage in Gaza aboard a Red Cross bus taking them to Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, on January 25, 2025 |
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed a “very happy moment”, with the White House assuring for its part that the United States would continue its efforts with Israel for the “release of all remaining hostages”.
According to Bassem Naïm, a member of the Hamas political bureau based in Doha, the agreement provided that immediately after the release of the soldiers, “people displaced in the south of the Gaza Strip would begin to return to the north.”
But Israel made this return conditional on the handover of a civilian hostage, Arbel Yehud, who was supposed to be released on Saturday, according to Mr. Netanyahu’s office. Two Palestinian leaders assured AFP that she was “in good health”.
In Gaza, at an Israeli checkpoint, Sohail Fahmy waits “impatiently” to be able to return home. “Even if I no longer have a house, I will be able to sit in front of the ruins,” she said in the middle of a crowd loaded with business.
Cries of joy in Tel Aviv and Ramallah-
| | © AFP Relatives and sympathizers of the four released Israeli soldiers, on the “Hostages Square” in Tel Aviv on January 25, 2025 - |
In Tel Aviv, on the “Hostages Square”, relatives and sympathizers of the soldiers uttered cries of joy, some moved to tears, as they followed their release live.
“Bring them home now, everyone!” shouted some in the crowd, sparking applause.
“I have criticisms to make about many things (about the hostage question, editor’s note), but this is just a moment (…) of happiness,” rejoiced Shlomi Ben Yakar, 54 years old .
In Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, a compact crowd brandishing Palestinian flags also jubilantly welcomed the arrival by bus of some of the 200 Palestinians just released. Others were to be brought to Gaza.
The list includes 120 sentenced to life imprisonment, 70 of whom were to be exiled outside the Palestinian Territories, according to a Palestinian source.
Al-Qahera News, an Egyptian television station, reported that 70 Palestinians “expelled” by Israel had arrived in Egypt.
TV showed one of them expressing an “indescribable feeling” from the bus transporting him.
Among these ex-prisoners is Mohammed Tous, 69, the Palestinian detained the longest continuously by Israel, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club. This member of Fatah, the party of the president of the Palestinian Authority, has been imprisoned since 1985.
33 hostages against 1,900 detainees
The first phase of the ceasefire agreement which entered into force on January 19 should last six weeks and allow the release of a total of 33 hostages against some 1,900 Palestinian prisoners.
| | © AFP Hamas fighters before the handover of four Israeli hostages to the Red Cross in Gaza City, January 25, 2025 |
Three Israeli women have already been released on the first day of the truce, in exchange for 90 Palestinian detainees, the majority women and minors.
The Israeli army indicated on Saturday that it was very concerned about the “fate” of the last two child hostages in Gaza, Kfir and Ariel Bibas, aged 2 and 5, kidnapped with their mother on October 7. Hamas announced their deaths more than a year ago, never confirmed by Israel.
“Our world collapsed” at the news that they would not be released during the day, their family said on Instagram.
During the first phase of the truce, the modalities of the second will be negotiated, which should allow the release of the last hostages, before the last stage relating to the reconstruction of Gaza and the restitution of the bodies of the hostages who died in captivity.
The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people on the Israeli side, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data. Of the 251 people kidnapped, 87 are still in Gaza, including 34 dead according to the army.
The retaliatory offensive launched by Israel in the besieged Gaza Strip has left at least 47,283 dead, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas Health Ministry.
