ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Hamas on Saturday handed over four hostages to Israel in exchange for 200 prisoners held in Israeli prisons as part of the second round of hostage swaps.

The hostages were four Israeli female soldiers, Naama Levy, Karina Ariev, Daniela Gilboa, all 20 years old, and 19-year-old Liri Albag, that were paraded in civilian attire in Gaza city before being handed over to the Red Cross.

The hostage-prisoner swap is part of a fragile ceasefire deal that materialized earlier this month, which is intended to facilitate a permanent ceasefire that would see an end to the 15-month-long war in Gaza.

"The four returning hostages are currently being accompanied by IDF (military) special forces and ISA (Shin Bet security agency) forces on their return to Israeli territory, where they will undergo an initial medical assessment," the Israeli military announced in a statement on Saturday.

The first exchange of hostages and prisoners took place on Sunday, six days prior to the second batch of hostage release, in which Hamas handed over three prisoners, in exchange for 90 Palestinians that were released by Israel, 69 women and 21 teenage boys.

During the first six weeks of the ceasefire deal that the two sides agreed to, marked as ‘the first phase’, Hamas is to release 33 hostages in total, with at least 3 hostages each week, in exchange, Israel will release 30 Palestinians for every Israeli civilian, and 50 for each soldier, according to Reuters.

The prisoner swaps come after a ceasefire was brokered between Israel and Hamas following a number of high-level negotiations that took place in Doha, mediated by Qatar, the United States, and Egypt, to end over 15 months of conflict between Israel and Hamas that has claimed over 46,000 lives and left more than 109,000 injured.