The freed soldiers, held captive by Palestinian factions since 7 October 2023, were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and subsequently reunited with their families following medical assessments, the Israeli army said.
Simultaneously, Israel released 200 Palestinian prisoners, including 121 serving life sentences and 79 serving long-term sentences in Israeli jails.
In a dramatic ceremony in Palestine Square in the centre of Gaza City, on a podium adorned with a banner in Arabic, English, and Hebrew that read "Zionism will not prevail", and an audience of a large crowd of residents, fighters belonging to the armed wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad—the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades and Saraya Al-Quds Brigades — handed the freed captives to representatives of the ICRC.
The Israeli army confirmed receiving the four soldiers and reunited them with their families after a medical assessment.
The freed soldiers are Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, and Naama Levy, aged 20, and Liri Albag, 19, respectively.

Dressed in military fatigues, smiling and in seemingly good health, the women gestured the thumbs-up sign to the crowds as Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, carrying assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, gathered in rows carrying their groups' banners and wearing their signature green and black headbands.

Hamas fighters gather at a square before handing over four Israeli captives to the Red Cross in Gaza City. AFP
Freed and deported!
The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza received on Saturday 70 Palestinian prisoners freed from Israeli jails who will be deported from the Palestinian territories as per the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, Al-Qahera News reported.
As per the three-phase ceasefire agreement brokered by Egypt, Qatar, and the US, Israel released 200 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday in exchange for the freed four Israeli captives, including 120 serving life sentences in Israeli jails and 80 serving long-term sentences.
70 of Saturday's freed Palestinian batch, including prominent figures in the Palestinian liberation movement, will be deported to Qatar, Turkey, or Egypt.

Video- Crowds greet detainees release to Gaza Strip
Heroes welcome!
Later in the day, a convoy of 114 Palestinians freed from Israeli jails as part of a prisoner swap under the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel was greeted by jubilant crowds in Beituna near Ramallah in the occupied territories on Saturday.

The freedmen raised victory signs to crowds chanting patriotic songs and waving Palestinian and Hamas flags as they emerged from the buses of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which brought them home.
Return to North?
Palestinians displaced by the war in southern Gaza should be able to begin returning to the north following Saturday's releases, Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas's political bureau based in Qatar, told AFP on Friday.
The truce has also led to a surge of food, fuel, medical and other aid into rubble-strewn Gaza, but Israel's UN ambassador on Friday confirmed that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Gaza's main aid agency, must end all operations in Israel by Thursday.
The Israeli captive-Palestinian prisoner exchange is intended to pave the way to a permanent end to the Israeli genocidal war that killed and wounded nearly 200,000 Palestinians and destroyed most homes and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.
Mediators Qatar and the United States announced the agreement days ahead of US President Donald Trump's inauguration.
Abu Obeida, spokesman for the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, said on Telegram Friday that "as part of the prisoners' exchange deal, the Qassam brigades decided to release tomorrow four women soldiers".
According to Israel's prison service, some of the Palestinians released will go to Gaza, with the rest returning to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The ceasefire agreement should be implemented in three phases, but the last two stages have not yet been finalized.
In Gaza, families displaced by more than a year of war longed to return home, but many will find only rubble where houses once stood.
"Even if we thought about returning, there is no place for us to put our tents because of the destruction," Theqra Qasem, a displaced woman, told AFP.
During the first 42-day phase that began Sunday, 33 captured Israelis believed still alive should be freed in staggered releases in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
On the first day of the truce on 19 January, three Israeli captives —Emily Damari, Romi Gonen, and Doron Steinbrecher—returned home.
Ninety Palestinians, mostly women and minors, were released in exchange.
Situation remains dire
Almost the entire Gaza population of 2.4 million has been displaced by the war.
According to the United Nations, by 1 December 2024, nearly 69 percent of buildings in the Gaza Strip had been destroyed or damaged by an Israeli carpet-bombing campaign, which has not been seen since World War II.
The UN Development Programme estimated last year that it could take until 2040 to rebuild all destroyed homes.
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, 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 social media platform X 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."
Across the Negev!
Meanwhile, in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military continued its deadly attack on Jenin and its refugee camp for a fifth consecutive day, killing more than a dozen Palestinians and evicting hundreds from their homes, raising concerns about the durability of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, has warned of a potential Israeli genocide in the West Bank, similar to that committed in the Gaza Strip.
"As the long-awaited ceasefire in Gaza took place, Israel's death machinery escalated its firing in the West Bank, killing 10 people in Jenin today," Albanese wrote on X.
"If it is not forced to stop, Israel's genocide of Palestinians will not be confined to Gaza. Mark my words," she added.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 847 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
In Gaza, Israel has killed 46,960 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since it started its genocidal war on the strip on 7 October 2023.
Short link: