JERUSALEM: Hamas freed four Israeli soldiers on Saturday in exchange for 200 Palestinian prisoners in the second swap under the Gaza truce, but a delay in releasing another Israeli prompted Tel Aviv to halt the return of Gazans to the enclave’s bombed-out north.

The four freed Israelis, all of them women, were led onto a podium in Gaza City amid a large crowd of Palestinians and surrou­nded by dozens of armed Hamas men. They waved and smiled before being led off, entering Red Cross vehicles to be transported to the Israeli side.

Soon after, buses carrying released Palestinian prisoners were seen departing from Israel’s Ofer military prison in the occupied West Bank. Israel’s prison service said all 200 had been released.

The releases were gree­ted by cheering crowds on both sides, including Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv and Palestinians in Ramallah.

But the refusal of Hamas to release another Israeli prisoner, a civilian woman, led Israel to halt plans to let Palestinians return to northern parts of Gaza, the area almost wiped out in Israeli bombardment. Hamas said it would free her next week, and called the halt to the reopening of the north a violation of the truce.

The truce calls for Hamas to release 33 Israeli women, children, elderly, sick and wounded over a six-week first phase, with Israel freeing 30 prisoners for each civilian and 50 for each soldier.

The 200 Palestinians freed on Saturday include fighters, some serving life sentences delivered by Israeli courts, according to a list published by Hamas.

Israel says those involved in alleged killing of Israelis will not be permitted to return home. Around 70 will be deported to Egypt, Palestinian officials said, and from there to another country, possibly Turkiye, Qatar or Algeria.

Another 16 were sent to Gaza and the rest were released to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where cheering crowds waving Palestinian flags gathered in Ramallah to greet them.

The four Israeli soldiers freed on Saturday — Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag — had all been stationed at an observation post on the edge of Gaza when Hamas took them captive during the Oct 7, 2023, raids.

In Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israelis gathered at a rallying point, crying, embracing and cheering as the release was aired on a giant screen.

The women were reunited with their families and then flown aboard helicopters to a hospital in central Israel.

Dispute

Joy in Israel over the release was clouded by disappointment after it emerged that Arbel Yehud, 29, who had been taken captive with her boyfriend from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, was not among those freed on Saturday.

An Israeli military spokesman called it a breach of the truce, while Hamas said it was a technical issue. A Hamas official said the group had informed mediators that she was alive and would be freed next Saturday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Palestinians in Gaza would not be allowed to cross back to the northern part of the territory until the issue was resolved.

Palestinian officials said as many as 650,000 displaced people were waiting to return to the north under the ceasefire. Witnesses said there was a stampede on a road leading to the north, blocked by Israeli troops who opened fire.

Medics said one person was killed there by Israeli fire, one of only a handful of fatalities reported since the truce began. Two others were injured.

Thousands of people were massed with their belongings along the coastal road, where they said an Israeli tank continued to block the road to the north.

“I will not go back to the tent,” Zaki Kashef, 26, waiting on the coastal road to return north from Deir Al Balah where he has been sheltering with his family for more than a year, said via a chat app. “Where are the mediators? Why can’t they force Israel to respect the deal?”

The ceasefire agreement, worked out after months of on-off negotiations brokered by Qatar and Egypt and backed by the United States, has halted the fighting for the first time in more than a year.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2025