President Donald Trump said the three hostages Hamas released on Saturday appear “to be in good shape” and reaffirmed his support for Israel.
Trump took to Truth Social to react to their release.
“Hamas has just released three Hostages from GAZA, including an American Citizen. They seem to be in good shape!” he wrote. “This differs from their statement last week that they would not release any Hostages.”
The hostages are all dual citizens of Israel and differing nations. Sagui Dekel-Chen is also an American, Iair Horn is also an Argentinian citizen, and Alexandre Troufanov is also a Russian citizen, CNN reported. They were abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, NBC News noted.
Saturday also reportedly saw Israel release 369 Palestinian prisoners, per NBC News.
The move meets Israel’s demands for three live hostages to be released on Saturday to prevent an end to the ceasefire.
Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large Joel Pollak confirmed on Thursday the three-hostage demand Israel set in the ultimatum. Israel’s ultimatum was softer than one Trump set days earlier, where he demanded the release of all hostages by noon Saturday or Hamas would risk the nullification of the ceasefire, enabling Israel to once again fight.
“The president made his announcement after Hamas said that it would delay the release of hostages in the ‘first phase’ of the six-week ceasefire deal, citing supposed Israeli violations of the deal,” Pollak noted.
Confirmed: Hamas must release "three live hostages" by noon on Saturday. Not "all." https://t.co/Sl2Sn4IcfV (2/2)
— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) February 13, 2025
The Times of Israel noted there was a total of 76 Hamas hostages as of Trump’s announcement on Monday.
Trump said Saturday that he supports whatever decision Israel makes regarding his own ultimatum.
“Israel will now have to decide what they will do about the 12:00 O’CLOCK, TODAY, DEADLINE imposed on the release of ALL HOSTAGES. The United States will back the decision they make!” Trump added.
🚨 PRESIDENT TRUMP: "If all of the hostages are not returned by Saturday at 12 o'clock, I would say cancel it and all bets are off... All of them. Not in drips and drabs." pic.twitter.com/MozJATMKRy
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) February 10, 2025
Netanyahu “will convene the security cabinet as soon as possible to decide on Israel’s next steps,” the Prime Minister’s office said in a statement obtained by the Times of Israel.
