GAZA: Hamas and the Zionist entity carried out a captive-prisoner swap on Saturday under a Gaza ceasefire deal, but a last-minute dispute blocked the expected return of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to devastated northern Gaza. As part of the exchange, the second since the truce took effect last Sunday, four freed Zionist women captives, all soldiers, arrived home in the Zionist entity after more than 15 months of captivity in Gaza. In exchange, the Zionist prison service confirmed that 200 Palestinian prisoners were freed.
The Zionist captives, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa and Naama Levy, all aged 20, and Liri Albag, 19, waved, smiled and gave thumbs up as they were paraded on a stage in Gaza City. Masked and armed fighters flanked them during a slick ceremony watched by hundreds of residents. After their handover to the Red Cross, the Zionist military said the women were transferred back into the Zionist entity and “reunited with their parents”.
Buses carrying the released Palestinians left Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank and Ktziot prison in the Negev desert. As dozens of the former prisoners reached the West Bank city of Ramallah, crowds of Palestinians erupted in joy, raising many of them onto their shoulders. Hundreds waited in the local sports center where the prisoners were dropped off for a short health checkup, while hundreds more watched on from the surrounding hills as fireworks went off. The Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group said among those to be released was Mohammed Al-Tous, 69, who has spent the longest continuous period in Zionist detention.
Bassem Naim, of the Hamas political bureau, had told AFP on Friday that Palestinians displaced by the war to southern Gaza should have been able to begin returning to the north following Saturday’s releases. But the Zionist entity on Saturday said it would block such returns until civilian woman hostage Arbel Yehud is released.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said she “was supposed to be released today” but a Hamas source told AFP Yehud will be “released as part of the third swap set for next Saturday”. On social media platform X, the military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, reiterated that Gazans were not allowed to approach the Netzarim corridor through which they have to pass to reach their homes in the north.
In contrast to chaotic scenes the week before, when crowds threatened to overwhelm vehicles holding the three captives released at the time, hundreds of fighters arrived before the handover and quickly established a cordon keeping the crowd well away from the slick handover proceedings.
Masked, armed Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters had arrived at Palestine Square in SUVs and on motorcycles with sirens blaring shortly before 9:30 AM (0730 GMT), an AFP reporter saw. Carrying assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers they fanned out across the square, many carrying their groups’ banners and wearing green headbands, as local residents gathered.
Sources from Hamas and Islamic Jihad told AFP they had deployed around 200 members of their armed wings, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades and the Al-Quds Brigades respectively, to secure Palestine Square where the handover was to happen.
The truce has brought a surge of food, fuel, medical and other aid into rubble-strewn Gaza, but the Zionist entity’s UN ambassador on Friday confirmed that the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Gaza’s main aid agency, must end all operations in the Zionist entity by Thursday. The captive-prisoner exchange is part of a fragile ceasefire agreement between the Zionist entity and Hamas that took effect last Sunday, and which is intended to pave the way to a permanent end to the war.
The ceasefire agreement should be implemented in three phases, but the last two stages have not yet been finalized. During the first, 42-day phase, 33 captives the Zionist entity believes are still alive should be freed in staggered releases in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians held in Zionist jails. Three Zionist women captives returned home on the first day of the truce in exchange for 90 Palestinians.
State-linked Egyptian media on Saturday said 70 freed Palestinian prisoners “deported” by the Zionist entity had arrived in Egypt by bus. They were to transit and go on to third countries. Another 16 were sent to Gaza and the rest were released to the Zionist-occupied West Bank, where cheering crowds waving Palestinian flags gathered in Ramallah to greet them.
The Zionist military offensive has killed at least 47,283 people in Gaza, a majority civilians. Almost the entire Gaza population of 2.4 million has been displaced by the war. “Probably between 65 percent to 70 percent of buildings in Gaza have either been entirely destroyed or damaged,” Achim Steiner, the head of the UN Development Program, told AFP in Davos, Switzerland. Hundreds of truckloads of aid have entered Gaza daily since the ceasefire began, but the UN says “the humanitarian situation remains dire”.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, will be effectively barred from operating as of Thursday. In a letter addressed to United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, Zionist Ambassador Danny Danon confirmed: “UNRWA is required to cease its operations in Jerusalem, and evacuate all premises in which it operates in the city, no later than 30 January 2025.” UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warned on Friday that preventing the agency from operating “might sabotage the Gaza ceasefire, failing once again hopes of people who have gone through unspeakable suffering.” – Agencies