Gaza Strip, Palestine — Six weeks in the Gaza ceasefire deal, new batch of Hamas hostages and Israel prisoners are set to be released on Saturday.
On Friday, Israel announced the names of the three hostages captured by Hamas during the course of the war that will be freed during the prisoner-for-captured exchange agreement under the truce.
Palestinian rebel group will release American-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen, Russian-Israeli Alexandre Troufanov and Argentinian-Israeli Iair Horn.
27 year old Troufanov was captured from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 2023, along with his grandmother, mother, and girlfriend, who were all freed in a previous negotiation.
35 year old Dekel-Chen was kidnapped defending his Nir Oz from attackers, leaving his then pregnant wife and two other children.
Meanwhile, Horn, 46 years old, was captured from Nir Oz with his brother who remains captive.
In exchange to these hostages, Israel will be freeing 369 Palestinian prisoners.
On Thursday, Hamas announced that the agreed hostage release will pursue as scheduled, amid earlier comment on delaying release due to alleged Israeli violations.
Israeli prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened continuation of war if the three hostages scheduled for this week’s release will not be freed by Hamas.