Desperate families await return of four female soldiers held by Hamas for 15 months

Hamas has announced that as part of a ceasefire agreement with Israel, it will release four female soldiers held captive in Gaza for 15 months in exchange for dozens of Palestinian prisoners. An advocacy group representing the hostages' families has confirmed the identities of the Israeli hostages who will be released on Saturday.

Under the agreement that has suspended the 15-month war, Israel will release 200 Palestinian prisoners or detainees in exchange for the four Israeli women, including 120 militants serving life sentences for deadly attacks. The four Israeli soldiers are 20-year-old Karina Ariev, 20-year-old Daniela Gilboa, 20-year-old Naama Levy, and 19-year-old Liri Albag, who were captured during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack and have been out of contact since.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum welcomed their expected release in a statement. “The entire nation has been fighting for them and anxiously awaits the moment they return to their families,” the statement read. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it had received a list of the hostages to be released but did not disclose their identities.

Relatives of the hostages held in Gaza called on Netanyahu earlier Friday to ensure the release of all remaining hostages, and called on U.S. President Donald Trump to continue to pressure for their release. The four female soldiers on the Hamas list were captured on October 7, 2023, when Palestinian militants overran the Nahal Oz base near the Gaza border, where more than 60 soldiers were killed. The kidnapped women had all served in lookout units responsible for monitoring border threats. A fifth female soldier from their unit, 20-year-old Agam Berger, was also kidnapped but was not on the list.

One of the released soldiers, Ariev, texted her family goodbye as she was dragged into Gaza: “If I don’t make it, please take care of Mom and Dad for the rest of their lives. Don’t give up. Live well.” Her family said she loves to cook, sing, dance, and write poetry. A year ago, Hamas released a video clip showing her and another soldier from her unit, Gilboa, pleading for their release. Daniela Gilboa was originally named Danielle, but after she was kidnapped, her parents changed it to Daniela, based on the Jewish belief that changing one's name can alter one's fate. In the video of her kidnapping, Gilboa appeared to have an injury to her foot as militants rushed her into a jeep headed for Gaza. Gilboa has said she dreams of becoming a professional singer.

Other videos shared around the world on October 7 showed soldier and triathlete Levy being kidnapped from her base wearing blood-stained gray sweatpants. As a young woman, she had participated in the U.S. Hands of Peace delegation, which brought together Americans, Israelis, and Palestinians to work together on coexistence. Earlier this month, as ceasefire negotiations dragged on, Hamas’s military wing released a video showing the youngest of the soldiers to be released, Albag, whose family said she was “severely psychologically distressed.”

As the fragile six-week truce between Israel and Hamas entered its sixth day, more than 90 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza. Israel believes that about a third, or perhaps as many as half, of the more than 90 hostages still held in Gaza are already dead. Hamas has not released clear information about how many hostages are still alive or have died. On October 7, 2023, militants stormed across the border into Israel, killing about 1,200 people, triggering the war in Gaza, and kidnapped about 250 men, women, and children. About 100 of them were released during a brief ceasefire in November of that year. The remains of about thirty more hostages have been recovered in Gaza. The military has rescued eight hostages.

In the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, 33 hostages are expected to be released in stages, including women, children, the sick, and those over 50, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. The 33 are mostly civilians, but the agreement also commits Hamas to release all living female soldiers in the first phase, which is expected to last 42 days. Hamas will release living hostages first, but may release some remains if they do not have enough such living hostages. On Sunday, the first day of the ceasefire, the first three Israeli hostages were released in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners, ending the longest and deadliest war in a century of Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Last week, the emotional scenes of hostages reuniting with their families brought joy and solace, but also raised concerns for others still trapped in Gaza. “This week we were moved by the images of mothers hugging their daughters, but our hearts are broken thinking of my son, Nimrod, and other men still left there, where every extra day is a real danger to their lives,” said Vicky Cohen, the mother of Nimrod Cohen, one of the hostages still being held. Another parent, Ayelet Samerano, whose son Jonathan Samerano is still being held, called on Trump to help release the remaining Israelis held in Gaza. Trump had warned that there would be “a price to pay” if the Israeli hostages were not released before he took office.

Israel is expected to release a list of the Palestinian prisoners to be released. The Israel Prison Service said late Friday that it was “preparing to release the imprisoned terrorists in accordance with the agreement.” The agency said the Red Cross would transport the Palestinian prisoners by bus from Ofer Prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah to different locations for release. Over the weekend, the truce agreement calls for the Israeli military to partially withdraw from a major route in central Gaza to allow hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to return to the ruins of their destroyed homes in the north.

Starting Saturday, Palestinian civilians in the south should be allowed to travel along a coastal road to northern Gaza. People in other parts of Gaza have taken advantage of the ceasefire this week to reunite with dispersed families, trudging through swathes of rubble, trying to salvage what remains of their homes and property. But those displaced from the north have had to wait. “The first thing I will do is kiss the land where I was born and raised,” said Nadia al-Debs, one of many people gathered in makeshift tents in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, preparing to travel to Gaza City the next day. “We will go back so my children can see their father.”

Large swathes of Gaza have been destroyed, and according to the Gaza health authorities, more than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed, making no distinction between combatants and civilians, but stating that more than half of them were women and children.