Feb. 14 (UPI) — Hamas Friday named the three Israeli hostages who are to be released Saturday, after agreeing to resume hostage releases agreed to in its cease-fire deal with Israel.
The men who will be released are Sagui Dekel-Chen, Yair Horn and Alexander Troufanov, Hamas said.
Troufanov is a dual Russian-Israeli citizen. Dekel-Chen is an American Israeli citizen. Horn is Argentine-Israeli.
On Thursday, Hamas agreed to resume releasing hostages after previously announcing it would suspend the releases, alleging that Israel had violated the cease-fire agreement.
Israel threatened to resume Gaza bombing unless the hostages were released as agreed, with U.S. President Donald Trump saying that Israel should terminate the agreement and “let all hell break out” if Hamas failed to release the hostages.
The Gaza cease-fire deal calls for a 42-day truce. Within that time at least 33 remaining hostages taken by Hamas Oct. 7, 2023 will be freed along with more than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The cease-fire started Jan. 19. Since then 16 Israeli and five Thai hostages were freed by Hamas. In return, Israel has released 566 prisoners.
Hamas still holds 73 hostages in Gaza abducted from Israel Oct. 7, 2023.
Approximately 1200 Israelis were killed by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attack. Israel then attacked Gaza with devastating bombardment and invasion, killing 48,230 people according to Gaza’s health ministry.
