Hamas militants escort Israeli-American hotsage Sagui Dekel-Chen on a stage before handing him over to a Red Cross team in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, on February 15, 2025, as part of the sixth hostage-prisoner exchange.
Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images
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Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images
TEL AVIV — In a ceremony surrounded by masked Palestinian militants and rubble from the Gaza war, Hamas released three Israeli hostages holding U.S., Russian and Argentinian citizenships on Saturday.
It was the sixth group of hostages freed as part of a fragile ceasefire deal that nearly collapsed this week between the Palestinian militant group and Israel. In exchange for the released hostages, Palestinian authorities expect Israel to release 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
The three male civilian hostages released are Sagui Dekel-Chen, a 36-year-old dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, Alexander Trupanov, a 29-year-old dual Russian-Israeli citizen, and Yair Horn, a 46-year-old dual Argentinian-Israeli.
The hostages were brought onto a stage, where a slogan on a large poster alluded to President Trump’s plan to transfer Gaza’s entire population to neighboring countries. “No migration except to Jerusalem,” it said. The three hostages were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Khan Younis, a city in south Gaza.
“None of us can begin to heal until the hostages are home and, again, as a consequence of that, allowing the people of Gaza to resume something that resembles normal life,” Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of Sagui, told NPR last month.
Among the 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees expected to be freed by Israel on Saturday are 36 who served life sentences in Israeli prisons, convicted for deadly attacks against Israelis. 333 of them are Gazans who were arrested by Israeli forces during the recent war and will be sent back to Gaza — the largest group of Palestinians to be returned to Gaza by Israel following more than 15 months of war.
