The exchange is part of a deal between Israel and Hamas that will see a total of 33 hostages returned to Israel in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

TEL AVIV — Hamas militants handed over four captive female Israeli soldiers to the Red Cross at Gaza City on Saturday after parading them in front of a crowd. Israel followed with the release of 200 Palestinian prisoners or detainees as part of the fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

A loud cheer swept through the crowd gathered at a Tel Aviv plaza known as Hostage Square, where giant screens livestreamed the long-awaited release of four Israeli hostages on Saturday, the latest to be freed under a Gaza ceasefire deal.

TEL AVIV/CAIRO (Reuters) -Israel approved a ceasefire deal with Palestinian militant group Hamas on Saturday that involves releasing hostages in the Gaza Strip, and Israeli forces carried out new attacks in the enclave before the agreement's scheduled start on Sunday.

Israel and Hamas were expected to swap more hostages for Palestinian prisoners on Saturday, the second such exchange since a ceasefire began in the Gaza Strip last weekend and another test for the deal.

As they were released, hundreds of people cheered in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square where they were watching the drama unfold on a big screen television.

The truce is aimed at winding down the deadliest and most destructive war ever fought between Israel and the militant group. The fragile deal has so far held, quieting airstrikes and rockets and allowing for increased aid to flow into the tiny coastal territory.

When the mother of one of the Thai hostages held in the Gaza Strip for over a year caught sight of her son on a Facebook livestream

Eight more hostages were freed from the Gaza Strip by Hamas-led militants on Thursday in a sometimes chaotic process that briefly delayed Israel's release of 110 Palestinian prisoners and underscored the fragility of the ceasefire that began earlier this month.

Hamas released eight hostages on Thursday — five Thai farm workers and three dual German-Israeli nationals — in exchange for 110 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Chaotic scenes surrounding the release of Israeli and Thai hostages in Gaza on Thursday brought condemnation from Israeli leaders and a temporary delay in the release of Palestinian prisoners, who were ultimately released later in the day.