While every Hamas hostage release brings its share of uncertainties, no one in Israel expected the astonishing videos that arrived from Gaza on the morning of Saturday, January 25. The images produced by the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera – banned in Israel since May 2024 – were shown on all the country's televisions and on a giant screen set up in "Hostage Square" in central Tel Aviv before a stunned audience. The staging orchestrated by Hamas amid the ruins of Gaza City, far more sophisticated than the previous week, was intended to demonstrate that despite 15 months of war and bombardment, the Islamist movement remains in control of the enclave.

If it hadn't been for the presence of hooded and armed Hamas militants, the four young women lined up on a stage could have looked like sportswomen on a podium: smiling in their khaki jumpsuits zipped up to the chin, their chests adorned with a badge held in place by a ribbon and their thumbs raised in an ambiguous sign of victory.

Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, Karina Ariev, all 20 years old, and Liri Albag, aged 19, were not preparing to receive a trophy but to regain their freedom after nearly 16 months in captivity. Kidnapped in their pajamas at dawn on October 7, 2023, at the Nahal Oz military base near the Gaza Strip, the conscripts had been working as lookouts. Their release came during the first phase of an agreement reached 10 days earlier between Israel and the Islamist organization.

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