Hamas has released three more Israeli hostages in the sixth exchange under the Gaza ceasefire.
Sasha Trufanov, a Russian-Israeli, Sagui Dekel-Chen, an American-Israeli, and Yair Horn, an Argentine-Israeli, were handed over to the Red Cross in the southern city of Khan Yunis on Saturday morning.
Trufanov, 29, Dekel-Chen, 36, and Horn, 46, were all abducted from Nir Oz, a kibbutz about one mile from Gaza.
The Israeli-Argentinian hostage, Yair Horn, shortly before he was released
BASHAR TALEB/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Celebrations broke out in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv after the release, with the family of Sagui Dekel-Chen expressing relief that he was finally on Israeli soil.
“In the coming hours, he will begin his rehabilitation process, he will meet his daughters Gali and Bar, and for the first time meet his little daughter, Shahar, who was born while he was in captivity. Our hearts ache for everything he missed, but now he’s here, unlike many others,” a statement from the family read.
“A friend, son, partner and most importantly a father has returned. 498 days, almost 500 days, he was so far away and now he’s finally on Israeli soil, with us.”
Dekel-Chen’s wife and daughters have campaigned for his return
Hamas said that 369 Palestinians were set to be released from Israeli jails, including 36 serving life sentences and a further 333 Gazan prisoners who were arrested after the October 7 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.
The exchange will leave six more hostages alive in Gaza and the bodies of a further eight who have died in captivity to be returned in the first phase of the deal. The remaining 59 will be returned in the second stage, due to begin in early March but subject to ongoing negotiations in Qatar.
Hamas gave one of the hostages an hourglass in a cruel message to the mother of Matan Zangauker, another hostage, telling her that “time is running out” to save her son.
The hourglass, handed to Yair Horn, contained images of Zangauker and his mother, Einav.
Yair Horn was abducted from Nir Oz kibbutz
While the exchange was less chaotic than in previous weeks, when gaunt-looking hostages were manhandled by gunmen, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad made a show of their presence, turning up in the white hummer vehicles similar to those used in the October 7 massacre and wearing IDF uniforms, touting Israeli guns.
They appeared in front of a poster depicting the final moments of Yahya Sinwar, the assassinated leader of Hamas and the mastermind behind the attack.
Saturday marked the first time Hamas and the PIJ conducted a joint handover, after the Islamist group released a video last night of Trufanov, a Russian-Israeli who was slated to be released in a previous exchange but had been held back due to his reportedly dire condition.
It comes after Hamas threatened not to return the hostages this week, accusing Israel of opening fire on civilians and failed to deliver sufficient tents into Gaza. During the first six weeks of the ceasefire, Israel is obliged to deliver a minimum of 60,000 temporary homes and 200,000 tents into Gaza. Three Palestinians were shot dead by Israel’s Defence Forces last weekend, according to the local health authorities.
In response to Hamas’s threats, Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, issued an ultimatum and vowed to restart the fighting if there was no hostage release on Saturday.
President Trump said that “all hell is going to break out” and argued the deal should be abandoned if all the hostages were not released at once. “As far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 o’clock, I think it’s an appropriate time. I would say, cancel it and all bets are off,” he said.
After Trump’s intervention, which came as he hosted King Abdullah II of Jordan in the White House, Netanyahu faced pressure from the extreme right in Israel to restart the war.
Itamar Ben Gvir, who quit Netanyahu’s coalition over the ceasefire deal, said Israel had Trump’s “full backing” to renew the assault unless all the hostages were released at noon and questioned why the Israeli prime minister would “settle for three”. “If Hamas does not release them all, unleash the fires of hell upon them,” he wrote on X.
However, there were mass protests in Tel Aviv again this week in support of the ceasefire deal, urging Netanyahu to abide by the truce.
Since the beginning of the deal, 16 Israeli and five Thai hostages have been freed in exchange for about 700 Palestinian prisoners.
There has been outrage in Israel over the increasingly gaunt appearance of the hostages and distress at the handover ceremonies staged by Hamas, during which the captives are forced to thank their captors.
The visibly malnourished, Eli Sharabi, 51, began talking about his desire to be reunited with his British-Israeli wife and their teenage daughters when he was released last week — unaware that all three had died on October 7. Trump said the hostages looked like “Holocaust survivors”.
Before the second phase of the ceasefire in early March, Arab countries are scrambling to come up with an alternative proposal for the future of Gaza after Trump reiterated his vision of expelling two million Palestinians and transforming the territory into the “riviera of the Middle East”.
Hamas said late on Friday that it expected discussions would begin early next week on a second phase of the ceasefire, which will lay out steps towards a long-term end to the war and the release of all remaining hostages.