Opposition welcomes female soldiers’ release, urges full deal to free all hostages: ‘Our moral obligation’
Jeremy Sharon is The Times of Israel’s legal affairs and settlements reporter

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid says the entire hostage-prisoner release deal with Hamas must be completed “in all its stages,” following the release of IDF soldiers Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy, and Liri Albag from captivity in Gaza.
“It is forbidden to stop until the deal is completed in its entirety, in all its stages. Until [female civilian hostage] Arbel [Yehud] and all the hostages come home. Every one, until the last one,” insists Lapid.
National Unity party chair Benny Gantz welcomes home the four young women, who served as surveillance soldiers on the Israel-Gaza border, and laments the fact that warnings by such surveillance soldiers of Hamas preparations for an invasion ahead of October 7 were ignored.
“The surveillance soldiers at the outpost were our eyes that saw, but did not find an attentive ear,” says Gantz. “They are the story of the failure that must be fully investigated.”
Gantz also praises the strength of their parents who as a group “united from the first moment” to work tirelessly for the release of their daughters.
“It’s impossible not to shed a tear and to rejoice when you see the happiness of Shira and Eli, Ayelet and Yoni, Albert and Ira, Orly and Ran,” says Gantz of the parents of the four soldiers.
Gantz says Israel “must bring back” all the other hostages still in Gaza, mentioning specifically Agam Berger, another surveillance soldier, as well as Yehud, and Shiri Bibas.
“This is the responsibility of the government of October 7, and this is the moral obligation of us all.”