In a new confirmation that the truce in Gaza is proceeding according to what was agreed between Hamas and Israel, the so-called Islamic Resistance Movement announced this Friday that the four hostages who will be released on Saturday in exchange for some 200 Palestinian prisoners are four military women. kidnapped on October 7, 2023. They are Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag. All of them carried out surveillance duties in the Strip from the Nahal Oz base, just a few hundred meters from the fence of the Palestinian enclave. The Government of Israel has confirmed that the mediators between the parties to achieve the truce have already provided them with the list.
The four soldiers were base and task companions of the Spanish-Israeli Maya Villalobo, 19, who died that day in Nahal Oz during the attack led by Hamas, which killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 250. She was the daughter of Eduardo Villalobo. , professor of Microbiology at the University of Seville, and Galit Sinvany, an Israeli researcher.
The warnings issued by these women and their companions from their positions regarding strange movements within the Strip were ignored by the Israeli authorities, several of them have denounced. In the months before the October 7 attack, the largest in Israel’s history, some described strange movements in the Palestinian area, simulated hostage-taking and farmers behaving in ways that could not be considered normal, according to testimonies collected by the BBC. They coincide with other voices of alarm that question the role of the army, the secret services and the Government of Benjamin Netanyahu in the face of warnings that a major operation was brewing on the other side of the Strip fence. The last to announce his resignation this week due to the failure to stop Hamas despite warnings is the top head of the army, General Herzi Halevi.
Last May, part of the recording made by the attackers came to light with the authorization of the families in which the hostages who are now going to be released are seen, then some injured, being harassed and transferred from the base to the military vehicle. in which they were taken to Gaza. “You are bitches! “We’re going to step on you, bitches!” one of the militiamen is heard. “You’re pretty,” says another.
Shay Ashram, 19, was another of those who died on October 7, 2023 in Nahal Oz. Shortly before, he had a telephone conversation in which he said goodbye to his family, according to local media. As detailed to Dror television channel 13, his father, Shay said: “Mom, dad, I love you, I want to say goodbye to you. “There are terrorists on the base, there are terrorists everywhere.”
The one scheduled for this Saturday is the second exchange of the first phase of the ceasefire, which will last six weeks and during which 33 captives in Gaza will be exchanged for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Last Sunday three civilian women were released in the first of these truce exchanges and hours later nearly a hundred Palestinian detainees were released from prison.
Once this weekend’s operation is carried out, there will still be 90 military and civilian hostages in Gaza, although several dozen have already been presumed dead. They are scheduled to leave throughout the first two phases of the ceasefire, which, as agreed, will last six weeks each.
