Hamas publishes names of four hostages it plans to release from Gaza
The hostages are to be freed on Saturday in exchange for the release of dozens of Palestinians imprisoned or detained by Israel.
The Hamas militant group has published the names of four hostages it says it will release on Saturday as part of the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
An advocacy group representing the families of Israelis held in Gaza confirmed that the hostages are female soldiers.
Under the ceasefire agreement that paused the 15-month war, Israel will release 200 Palestinian prisoners or detainees in exchange for the four, including 120 militants serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks.
The four soldiers – Karina Ariev, 20, Daniella Gilboa, 20, Naama Levy, 20, and Liri Albag, 19 – were captured in Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack that ignited the war and have had no contact with the outside world since then.
In the Palestinian enclave, civilians in the central and southern part of the Gaza Strip hoping to return to the remnants of their home in the battered north faced an agonising wait.
Israel believes about a third, or possibly as many as half, of the more than 90 hostages still in Gaza have died.
Hamas has not released definitive information on how many captives are still alive or the names of those who have died.
Ayelet Samerano, whose son Yonatan Samerano is among those still being held, said: “Dear President Trump, first of all we want to say thank you for the happy moments we felt this week. But we want to tell you we still have 94 hostages, we need them all at home.
In the first phase of the ceasefire deal, 33 hostages are expected to be released gradually in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The first three Israeli hostages were freed in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners on Sunday, the first day of the ceasefire that has halted the 15-month war that has devastated Gaza.
Wide swathes of the territory have been destroyed, while more than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza health authorities, who do not differentiate between combatants and civilians but say more than half are women and children.
According to the deal, on Friday Hamas is to announce the names of the next four hostages to be released on Saturday, after which Israel will also release a list of which Palestinian prisoners will be freed.
The hostages were among about 250 men, women and children captured by militants who burst across the border into Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people in an attack that sparked the war in Gaza.
About 100 were released during a brief ceasefire in November that year, while the bodies of around three dozen hostages have been recovered in Gaza and eight hostages have been rescued by the army.
