Clutching Hamas-branded gift bags and wearing military fatigues, the four Israeli hostages handed over by Hamas on Saturday to the Red Cross waved and gave thumbs up as they were paraded on stage before dozens of militants and a huge crowd.
Hundreds of Gaza residents who gathered to watch the scene responded with cheers, whistles and shouts before the women were escorted off stage and into the hands of the Red Cross, an AFP reporter said.
In contrast to chaotic scenes the week before, when crowds threatened to overwhelm vehicles holding the three hostages released at the time, hundreds of the militants 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 militants 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.
Footage released later by the Hamas armed wing showed the women before their release being given the gift bags, which included woolly hats, key chains and framed certificates commemorating the "Al-Aqsa Flood deal", using the name given by the Palestinian group to its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Speaking to camera while still being held hostage, the women thanked the militants for feeding, clothing and looking after them.
- 'Release certificates '-
Off to one side, dozens of Gazans including young children and teenagers had scaled a huge mound of rubble in front of a collapsed building to secure a view of the expected release.
Just under 90 minutes later, a convoy of four white SUVs from the International Committee of the Red Cross arrived and entered the small square staked out by the fighters. Minutes later, five cars carrying the hostages arrived.
Behind them stood the Palestine Shopping Centre, pockmarked with the scars of bombings and adorned with a giant Palestinian flag.
The two men signed "release certificates" for the hostages, with a sign beneath them adorned with the emblems of the Israeli military and security services and the accompanying message in Hebrew: "Zionism will not prevail".
Shortly after, the four hostages emerged to whistles, cheers and shouts from the crowd, as Hamas camera crews and photographers swarmed around them.
The women, all wearing green military fatigues with their hair up in high ponytails were then escorted onto the stage where they smiled, waved and gave thumbs up to the crowd who shouted cheerfully back and whistled.
Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy -- all aged 20 -- and Liri Albag, 19, were all captured from a military surveillance base in Nahal Oz during Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack.
Moments later, they were escorted off the stage and into the Red Cross SUVs which drove off through the crowd, past buildings devastated by more than 15 months of war.
By Khader Al-zaanoun