FOUR young Israeli female soldiers are finally free and reunited with their families after 477 brutal days in Hamas captivity.
Karina Ariev, 20, Daniela Gilboa, 20, Naama Levy, 20, and Liri Elbag, 19, were handed over to the Red Cross and taken back to safety with Israeli forces.
The four soldiers were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, during the deadly assault on Israel’s Nahal Oz military base.
Their long-awaited release came as armed Hamas fighters surrounded the hostages and dozens of onlookers gathered at the square in Gaza City on Saturday morning.
The women were seen waving from a stage while flanked by masked terrorists in a sickening parade before being handed over to the Red Cross and driven to safety.
Their desperate parents clapped and cried out in joy when they saw them on screen, watching the handover live from a nearby military base across the border.
In Tel Aviv, hundreds of Israelis gathered at the so-called Hostages Square, crying, embracing and cheering as it was aired on a giant screen.
The four young hostages were reunited with their parents for the first time in more than a year in emotional scenes.
The families and friends of the four released hostages are overjoyed that they are back to safety.
“Yes! Yes! Yes! Liri the hero,” Albag’s friends told Israeli outlet Ynet.
“We saw Liri coming back. She waved her hand and she seems fine. It’s crazy. We were really worried, but she’s a hero with a huge smile.”
Gilboa’s family shares with Channel 12 news their happiness at seeing her exit the Hamas vehicle.
“She is a hero. We were so happy to see her on her feet,” they said.
A friend of Levy told Ynet how impressed they are with the four women’s resilience.
“I have no words to describe the feelings now to see Naama back on her feet along with three other amazing, heroic girls,” they said.
“We don’t know what she went through there, and we can only imagine the hell. I thought the worst, I dreamed that she was coming out in the worst possible condition, sitting or lying down or worse.”
Liri, Naama, Karina and Daniella are now the second group of hostages to be released after three women, including Israeli-Brit Emily Damari, were freed last week.
Under the terms of the fragile ceasefire, Hamas released the soldiers in exchange for 200 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
Buses carrying the released Palestinian prisoners were seen departing from the Israeli Ofer military prison in the occupied West Bank before they went over the border to Gaza.
They include convicted militants serving life sentences for their involvement in attacks that killed dozens of people, according to a list published by Hamas.
Around 70 will be deported to Egypt, another 16 sent to Gaza and the remaining prisoners will be released to the West Bank, Palestinian officials said.
Crowds gathered at the Hostages Square in Tel Aviv to watch the release.
Dozens of Israelis were seen tearing up at the hopeful scenes while holding posters of other hostages yet to be freed.
For the hostages, the nightmare began on that fateful October morning, when Hamas stormed the Nahal Oz outpost.
Videos from the attack showed the young women with their hands tied behind their backs, bloodied and pleading for mercy as Hamas terrorists tormented them.
Liri, just 19 at the time, had been a surveillance soldier for only three days.
Naama, 20, appeared in footage with blood-soaked clothes and visible wounds.
Daniela, also 20, was injured during her abduction and appeared in several Hamas propaganda videos.
And 20-year-old Karina was snatched alongside her fellow soldiers in the pre-dawn chaos.
Hamas broke the terms of the hostage arrangement by releasing the four female soldiers before releasing the civilian women, according to IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.
"Hamas did not abide by its obligation in the deal to free civilian women first," he said in a televised statement on Saturday.
According to Hagari, Israel will ensure the immediate release of civilian prisoner Arbel Yehud, whom Israel believes to be alive, as well as Shiri Bibas and her children, "who we have heavy concerns for their fate."
He said Israel anticipates further information about the Bibas family soon.
The family of the Bibas brothers recently revealed they have no idea if the young boys are dead or alive, after no proof of life was provided by Hamas.
Ariel Bibas, five, and his brother Kfir, two, and their parents - Yarden and Shiri - are on the list of hostages to be released in the first six-week phase of the ceasefire.
But relatives have received no information since the ceasefire began on Sunday - the day after Kfir’s second birthday.
Ofri Bibas-Levy, the aunt of the brothers, told NBC News: "Not knowing is so hard that sometimes I want to scream.
"Just tell me, even if it's the worst, I just want to know.
"Not knowing, I can't start any kind of healing, I can't start recovering - I'm stuck," she said, clutching a special recreation of the pink elephant toy that features in Kfir's most famous picture.
In November 2023, Hamas published a video of Yarden Bibas being told his wife and children had been killed.
Hamas said they were killed in an IDF air strike on Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.
However, Hamas are known to have lied about deaths in the past as a form of psychological torture - so there the situation is still unclear.
More to follow... For the latest news on this story keep checking back at The Sun Online
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