Three Israeli hostages freed in Gaza in exchange for 369 Palestinians prisoners

JERUSALEM (Reuters): Israeli hostages Iair Horn, Sagui Dekel-Chen, and Sasha (Alexander) Troufanov were freed in Gaza on Saturday and Israel began releasing some 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in exchange after mediators helped avert a ceasefire collapse.

The three Israelis were led onto a stage with Hamas personnel armed with automatic rifles standing on each side of them at the site in Khan Younis, live footage showed, before they were taken into Israel by Israeli forces.

Shortly afterward, the first bus carrying freed Palestinian prisoners and detainees departed Israel’s Ofer jail in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, live footage showed. The bus arrived in Ramallah to a cheering crowd, some waving Palestinian flags.

The swap of the three Israelis for the 369 Palestinians eased fears that the ceasefire agreement could collapse before the end of the 42-day first stage of a ceasefire deal in effect since January 19.

In what has become known as Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, people broke into cheers and tears when they heard the Red Cross was on its way to deliver the three to Israeli military forces in the Gaza Strip.

Residents of Israeli kibbutz communities near the Gaza border lined the road cheering and waving Israeli flags as the vehicles carrying the hostages out of Gaza passed by.

Dekel-Chen, a U.S.-Israeli, Troufanov, a Russian Israeli, and Horn, whose brother Eitan was also abducted, were seized in Kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7, 2023, operation.

Some of the dozens of masked Hamas fighters deployed at the handover site carried rifles seized from the Israeli military during the October attack, Hamas sources said.

On the handover stage in Khan Younis, the hostages were made to give short statements in Hebrew and militants presented one of them, Iair Horn, with an hourglass and photo of another Israeli hostage still in Gaza and his mother, reading “Time is running out (for the hostages still in Gaza)”.

Troufanov was abducted with his mother, grandmother, and girlfriend – all of whom were released in the brief November 2023 truce. His father was killed in the attack on Nir Oz, one of the worst-hit communities, where one in four people either died or were taken hostage.

On October 7, Dekel-Chen, 36, left his pregnant wife and two little daughters in the family safe room to go out and fight the gunmen rampaging through the kibbutz. With his release, he will meet his youngest daughter for the first time.

Argentina-born Horn, 46, who managed the Nir Oz pub, was taken captive together with his younger brother Eitan who was visiting that day. Horn appeared to have lost considerable weight in captivity.

“Now, we can breathe a little. Our Iair is home after surviving hell in Gaza. Now, we need to bring Eitan back so our family can truly breathe,” Horn’s family said in a statement.

Nineteen Israeli and five Thai hostages have been released so far, with 73 still in captivity, around half of whom have been declared dead in absentia by Israeli authorities.