Three Israeli men regained their freedom on Saturday, after 498 days of captivity in the Gaza Strip.
The hostages were handed over to representatives of the Red Cross at a staged event in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, shortly after 10 a.m., and to the IDF and the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) at approximately 10:30, and were being escorted to Israeli territory for an initial medical examination.
Alexander (“Sasha”) Troufanov, 29, who has dual Russian citizenship, had been held by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, while American-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, and Argentinian-Israeli Iair Horn, 46, were captives of Hamas.
In return, Israel is to release 369 terrorists later on Saturday—36 serving life sentences, most of who will go to the Gaza Strip or Egypt, and 333 terrorism suspects apprehended inside the Gaza Strip since the Hamas-led invasion of the northwestern Negev on Oct. 7, 2023, according to figures from the Palestinian Authority Prisoners Ministry.
All three hostages were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Troufanov was abducted along with his mother, Yelena Trufanov; his grandmother Irena Tati; and his girlfriend, Sapir Cohen. His mother and grandmother were freed by Hamas on Nov. 29, 2023, at the request of Russian President Vladimir Putin, while Cohen was released as part of a ceasefire deal that same month. Troufanov’s father, Vitaly, was killed during the Oct. 7 massacre.
Sagui Dekel-Chen was also taken from Nir Oz during the terrorist invasion. His mother, Neomit, was taken captive along with neighbors in an electric cart that was headed toward Gaza when an Israeli Air Force helicopter shot at the terrorists and driver. Neomit was wounded and escaped. Dekel-Chen’s third daughter, Shachar, was born two months later.
Iair Horn’s brother Eitan, 38, who was visiting from Kfar Saba, was also kidnapped and is still in the Gaza Strip.
Since the ceasefire entered into force on Jan. 19, 19 Israeli and five Thai hostages have been released in exchange for 566 Palestinian terrorists held in Israeli prisons. The latter figure is to rise to 935 later on Saturday.
During the first six weeks of the ceasefire, a total of 33 hostages are set to be freed in exchange for approximately 1,900 Palestinian terrorists held in Israel. Hamas says eight on the list of 33 captives have died inside the Gaza Strip.
Saturday’s exchange of hostages for terrorists was the sixth such round under Phase 1 of the ceasefire that took effect on Jan. 19 and is to end on March 1. Talks are ongoing on Phase 2 and 3.
The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Gazan terrorists killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
Seventy-three hostages remain inside the Strip, including 70 kidnapped on Oct. 7.
