Hamas released four female soldiers on Saturday as part of a hostage-for-prisoner exchange, more than a year after the women were taken captive during the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that started the war.
The hostage release is part of a 42-day cease-fire deal that went into effect on Sunday, pausing the fighting between Israel and Hamas. Hamas agreed to incrementally release 33 out of almost 100 remaining hostages in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinians jailed by Israel and a partial Israeli withdrawal.
The young women were working as “spotters” for Israel’s army, reporting on suspicious activity across the border. During the Hamas-led attack, militants stormed the Nahal Oz military base in Israel, killing more than 50 soldiers and abducting the women, all of them teenagers at the time, and three other female soldiers.
In May, the Israel military released a three-minute edited collection of videos, verified by The New York Times, showing Palestinian fighters, some wearing Hamas headbands, binding the hands of five women, including the four being released on Saturday. The footage was recorded by body cameras worn by the Hamas militants who abducted them, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents relatives of many of the captives.
Here is what else we know about the four released hostages:
Liri Albag
In January, Hamas’s military wing released an edited video of Ms. Albag, now 19, speaking for three and a half minutes, in which she said she had been held for more than 450 days.
In a statement, Ms. Albag’s family said that “her severe psychological distress is evident” in the video and asked leaders to “make decisions as if your own children were there.”
“She is just dozens of kilometers away from us, yet for 456 days we have been unable to bring her home,” the family said.
Karina Ariev
Ms. Ariev, now 20, called her parents during the attack, describing militants firing guns and rockets, and told them she loved them, according to Israeli news media. Her family later that day found a Hamas video posted on social media that showed Ms. Ariev and two other women in a Jeep — her face was bleeding, they said.
In August, after Ms. Ariev turned 20 in captivity, Ms. Ariev’s older sister, Sasha Ariev, said at an event in Jerusalem that she had moved home after the Oct. 7 attack to help her struggling parents who were feeling increasingly helpless and struggling to keep up hope.
She said the hostage crisis was consuming her. “How can I sleep when we haven’t succeeded in bringing Karina and all the other hostages home?” she said. “How can I sleep when I’m in my bed and she’s a hostage?”
Daniella Gilboa
Daniella Gilboa, 20, is from Petah Tikva, in central Israel. In July, Ms. Gilboa’s family released a video made by Hamas that they had received months earlier, which showed her and Ms. Ariev in captivity.
In an interview with Maariv, an Israeli newspaper, the father of Ms. Gilboa’s boyfriend said the family was feeling mixed emotions over the video. “In her family, there is a feeling of relief alongside a feeling of disappointment,” he was quoted as saying.
Naama Levy
Naama Levy, who is also now 20, texted her mother from a safe room on the day of the attack, according to a website focused on advocating her release. “I’ve never heard anything like this,” she wrote. A Hamas video of her being taken to Gaza circulated on social media shortly after the attack.
In an interview for a documentary about sexual violence during the attack, Ayelet Levy Sachar, Naama’s mother, spoke of her daughter’s kidnapping. She was seen in a Hamas video in pajama bottoms, drenched in blood.
“They’re grabbing her by the hair, and she’s all, like, messed up,” she said, adding, “We would like to think that this couldn’t be possible. That nobody would harm a young girl. But then you just see it there.”
