Gaza ceasefire: Israel releases 200 Palestinian prisoners after Hamas freed 4 female soldiers

Palestinian terrorists and Israel carried out a hostage-prisoner swap on Saturday under a Gaza ceasefire deal, with Israel releasing 200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees after Hamas freed four women soldiers as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

Thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank city of Ramallah celebrated the arrival of buses carrying dozens of prisoners released as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, news agency AP reported.

Israel said it released a total of 200 prisoners after Hamas freed four young, female Israeli soldiers. The prisoners include 120 who were serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks on Israelis. Around 70 were released into Egypt.

The move came hours after Hamas released four female Israeli soldiers they held captive for 15 months for 200 Palestinian prisoners or detainees in Israel.

It’s the second exchange since a fragile ceasefire took effect last weekend, halting the fighting in Gaza for at least six weeks during which dozens of Israeli hostages and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will be freed while more aid flows in.

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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 since a truce that lasted just a week in November 2023.

In the first six-week phase of the deal, Hamas has agreed to release 33 hostages, including children, women, older men and the sick and injured, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, while Israeli troops pull back from some of their positions in the Gaza Strip.

In a subsequent phase, the two sides would negotiate the exchange of the remaining hostages, including men of military age, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, which lies largely in ruins after 15 months of fighting and bombardment.

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After Saturday’s release, 90 hostages remain in Gaza, according to Israeli authorities, who have declared around a third of them dead in absentia.

Families of hostages who are not included in the first phase are concerned that the ceasefire will break down before it reaches the next stages and that their loved ones will be left behind.

Israel launched its campaign in Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, when militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, more than 47,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to health authorities there.

Israel has lost more than 400 soldiers in Gaza combat. Hamas has not revealed how many fighters it has lost. Israel estimates that more than a third of Gaza’s death toll is militants.

With inputs from agencies