Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag, all aged between 19 and 20, were released to the Red Cross in Gaza City during a heavily-choreographed handover involving dozens of Hamas gunmen.
Hamas says the hostage will be released next weekend. It has not provided any details.
Despite the dispute, Israel released the Palestinian prisoners – among them 70 people who were immediately deported to neighbouring countries via Egypt due to the seriousness of their offences.
Some of the prisoners will be transferred to Gaza, while others will be allowed to return to their homes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The swap on Saturday was the second exchange since a ceasefire came into effect on 19 January. Three hostages and 90 Palestinian prisoners were released in the first swap a week ago.
Saturday’s event in Palestine Square, Gaza City, was highly choreographed by Hamas, unlike last weekend’s chaotic handover.
The four hostages emerged from cars and were shepherded by masked gunmen to a stage erected in the square, where moments earlier a Red Cross official had sat at a desk to sign documents with a Hamas fighter.
The hostages and the masked gunmen wore lanyards around their necks containing laminated ID badges, each with their own sort of accreditation for the event.
The stage was set up with a desk and flags, symbols of bureaucracy – but alongside the platform was a machine gun.
The four Israeli women were seen waving, smiling and holding hands as crowds of Hamas gunmen and Palestinian civilians looked on.
Hamas – which gave each hostage a bag of items to take with them back to Israel – will hope these carefully crafted images project order as well as strength.
For Israelis, there was huge relief that another four hostages – who were reunited with their families shortly after being freed – are safe.
After Saturday’s wildly contrasting scenes, another kind of anger was likely: at the public parading of the women in their final moments before being given their freedom.
