All four female Israeli soldiers recently released by Hamas were members of a mostly female observation unit deployed around Gaza to monitor signs of Hamas activity. They were among more than 250 hostages held during an attack by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Many Palestinians gathered in Gaza City, Gaza Strip on January 25 when Hamas released four female Israeli soldiers
The released female Israeli soldiers are Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy (both 20 years old) and Liri Albag (19 years old), according to the Israeli Hostage and Missing Families Forum, an advocacy group.
An AFP reporter witnessed the return after the four were presented on stage in the main square in Gaza City in northern Gaza, where many masked, armed Hamas members had gathered in front of them. there.
Hamas released 4 female Israeli soldiers in a 1 for 50 deal
Hamas members have returned four Israeli hostages to the Red Cross under a ceasefire agreement in the Hamas-Israel conflict in Gaza.
Previously, AFP quoted a number of Palestinian sources as saying that Israel would release 200 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 4 female soldiers. According to Israel’s prison service, some of the released Palestinians will go to Gaza and the rest will return to the Israeli-controlled West Bank.
“Anxiety and fear”
The above ceasefire agreement, effective from January 19, will be implemented in three phases, but the last two phases have not yet been completed. “The worry and fear that the agreement will not be carried out to the end is gnawing at all of us,” expressed Vicky Cohen, mother of a hostage.
Israelis watch a broadcast related to the release of Israeli hostages in Tel Aviv on January 25
In Gaza, families displaced by more than a year of conflict hope to return home, but many of them will find only rubble where their homes once stood. “Even if we think about going back, there is nowhere to put up a tent because everywhere is devastated,” Theqra Qasem, a displaced woman, told AFP.
During the 42-day first phase of the ceasefire, 33 hostages whom Israel believes are still alive will be released in batches in exchange for about 1,900 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
On the first day of the ceasefire, Hamas released three hostages, including Emily Damari, Romi Gonen and Doron Steinbrecher, in exchange for Israel releasing 90 Palestinians, mostly women and minors.
The second phase of the deal is to negotiate an end to the longer conflict, but analysts have warned that the deal risks collapsing because of the multi-phase nature of the agreement and deep mistrust between Israel and Hamas, according to AFP.
Only Israeli-related ships remain as Houthi targets in the Red Sea
During the attack on October 7. In 2023, Hamas gunmen took 251 hostages, of which 91 remained in captivity in Gaza, including 34 whom the Israeli military confirmed were dead. That attack also killed 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to AFP citing official figures from Israel.
Meanwhile, Israel’s retaliatory strike has since killed at least 47,283 people in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Authority. This data is considered reliable by the United Nations.
Is the situation still bad?
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani said that according to the ceasefire agreement, Israel’s withdrawal of troops from densely populated areas of Gaza is to facilitate the exchange of prisoners and hostages as well as the return of “displaced people to their places of residence”. Nearly the entire Gaza population of 2.4 million has been displaced by the Hamas-Israel conflict.
According to the United Nations as of December 1, 2024, nearly 69% of buildings in the Gaza Strip had been destroyed or damaged, and the United Nations Development Program estimated last year that it could take until 2040. to rebuild all destroyed houses.
Hundreds of trucks carrying aid have entered Gaza every day since the ceasefire began, but the United Nations said “the humanitarian situation remains dire”.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), is expected to be banned from operating in Gaza as of January 30, according to a ban passed by the Israeli parliament in January. October 2024. This ban was passed after Israel accused some UNRWA employees of participating in the attack on October 7, 2023. UNRWA has denied this allegation.
If implemented, the ban would result in the closure of UNRWA’s offices and the freezing of its financial accounts in Israel, essentially halting its operations.
In a letter sent to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon confirmed: “UNRWA is required to cease operations in Jerusalem and evacuate all of its facilities. operating in the city, no later than January 30, 2025”.
UNRWA Secretary General Philippe Lazzarini on January 24 warned on social network The suffering cannot be expressed in words,” according to AFP.
