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Hamas says four female soldiers will be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners on Saturday.
Hamas has announced the names of four Israeli female soldiers who will be freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in the second exchange under the Gaza ceasefire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it received the list submitted by Hamas on Friday, but has not confirmed the names.
The exchange, expected to begin Saturday afternoon, follows the release on Sunday, the first day of the ceasefire, of three Israeli women and 90 Palestinian prisoners, the first such exchange in more than a year.
In the first six-week phase of the Gaza ceasefire, Israel agreed to release 50 Palestinian prisoners for every female soldier released, officials said.
That suggests 200 Palestinian prisoners would be released this weekend in exchange for the four Israelis.
However, some reports indicated that the list does not align with the terms of the ceasefire and Israel hoped that certain civilians would be included in the latest list for release.
“Israel wanted civilians to be released first, then soldiers, and then those deemed extremely ill as part of the first phase of this deal,” Al Jazeera’s Hamduh Salut reported from Amman, Jordan.
Since the release of the three women on Sunday and the recovery of the body of an Israeli soldier missing for a decade, Israel said 94 Israelis and foreigners remain detained in Gaza.
The ceasefire, reached after months of on-again, off-again negotiations brokered by Qatar and Egypt and backed by the United States, stopped fighting for the first time since a truce that lasted just a week in November 2023.
In the first phase, Hamas agreed to release 33 captives in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
In a later phase, both sides will negotiate the exchange of remaining captives and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, which is largely in ruins after 15 months of Israeli fighting and bombing.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 47,283 Palestinians and injured 111,472 since October 7, 2023. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during Hamas-led attacks that day and more than 200 were taken captive.
