Gaza ceasefire:  Hamas frees four female Israeli soldiers

Gaza ceasefire:  Hamas frees four female Israeli soldiers

By WatchmanPost

As part of the ceasefire agreement they reached with Israel on 10th January, 2025, the jihadi group in Gaza, Hamas, has released four female Israeli soldiers they kidnapped from Israel on October 7, 2023,
The kidnappees were, Saturday, 25th January 2025, released to the Red Cross society amid a large Gazan crowd chanting songs apparently with the hopes of rebuilding their homes and lives following 15 months’ war started by Hamas.
The Red Cross, after conveying the hostages in a convoy of four vehicles from Gaza City, handed them over to Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) this morning (Nigerian time).
After preliminary medical check, they were taken to reunite with their families.
The release of the abductees was covered live by international television stations across the globe including Fox News, the BBC, Al Jazeera and France 24.
Monitoring the scenario from Uyo, WatchmanPost reports seeing the freed hostages   encircled by a horde of masked gun wielding Hamas’ fighters, apparently making a show of the event.
The four soldiers, dressed in their IDF military uniforms, were seen thumbing up and punching the air with their right hand fists as they walked into the Red Cross vehicles.
Apart from Kiri Albag, 18, the other three soldiers, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa and Nana Levy, are aged 20. Their release came after spending 477 days in captivity.
Hamas kidnapped them while serving as observers at the Bahal Oz army base on the Gaza-Israeli border.
In that onslaught – the worst against Israel since the Holocaust – Hamas murdered more than 360 individuals in Israel and kidnapped some 251 into Gaza.
With their release, the number of freed Israeli kidnappees stands at seven. Three individuals had been released last Sunday, even as Israel also released 90 Palestinian prisoners at the time.
Israel was expected to release additional 200 Palestinian prisoners from its prisons as their own part of the second swap in the ceasefire deal.
As of the time of filing this report, that was still being awaited.
The war launched by Israel to avenge the crushing invasion of their country, which was celebrated across many Arab countries, has brought Gaza to its knees with the Palestinian Health authorities claiming the war has drowned more than 45000 lives, most of them civilians. The figure has been dismissed by Israel as grossly exaggerated for false propaganda purposes, more so as no specific number of Hamas’ fighters killed has been mentioned.
On its part, Israel claims it has obliterated most of Hamas’ military infrastructure and fighting capabilities as it has taken out most of their fighters.

* With Agency reports

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