The Prime Minister’s Office announced on Friday that it had received the names of three male hostages — Sagui Dekel Chen, Sasha Troufanov and Iair Horn — slated for release from captivity in Gaza on Saturday, as part of the sixth hostage-prisoner exchange under the ongoing ceasefire agreement with the Hamas terror group.
Hamas notified Israel of the identities of the three hostages set to be released via Egyptian and Qatari mediators, having backed down on Thursday from a threat to delay the next release of captives. Hamas had accused Israel earlier in the week of failing to meet its aid obligations under the truce. Israel had rejected the charge and threatened to resume the war.
In a statement welcoming the announcement, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum noted the “shocking footage of hostage survivors” released last week and “the latest signs of life” that relatives of captives still held in Gaza have received recently from Israelis freed under the truce deal.
“We must reach a comprehensive and immediate agreement, without gaps or delays, to return all hostages — the living for rehabilitation and the deceased for proper burial,” the forum said in a statement.
Israel had in recent days appeared to endorse US President Donald Trump’s demand that all hostages be freed promptly, rather than just the three set for the next release, but was vague on the matter. Jerusalem was reportedly still pushing for further live hostages to be released in the upcoming days, but a senior Arab official told The Times of Israel on Thursday that it was unlikely the terror group would deviate from the original timeframe of the agreement.
Three hostages released by Hamas last weekend — Eli Sharabi, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami — came back gaunt and pale, suffering from serious health issues.
The release of the next three hostages, who were all kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz during Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, was expected to begin on Saturday morning, though the timing had not been confirmed as of Friday afternoon.
Russian-Israeli citizen Troufanov, 29, was taken hostage along with three members of his family — grandmother Irena Tati, mother Yelena (Lena) and his girlfriend Sapir Cohen — from their home in the Gaza border community. His father Vitaly Troufanov was killed during the onslaught.
Hamas released the three women in November 2023 as part of a week-long truce.
Moscow has pushed for Troufanov’s release multiple times since he was abducted, including since the January ceasefire was announced.
The Russian-Israeli is being held by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group, which indicated it had agreed to the release.
The last two Israeli hostages to be released from Gaza by the PIJ, Arbel Yehoud and Gadi Mozes, were handed over to the Red Cross in an uncontrolled and dangerous event outside the destroyed home of slain Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, surrounded by hundreds of masked gunmen and large, seething crowds.
Israel has warned strongly against such an event recurring.
Hebrew media reported that the three men were expected to be handed over in at least two different locations on Saturday — Troufanov from Khan Younis and Dekel-Chen and Horn, who are being held by Hamas, from one or two other locations in Gaza.
US-Israeli citizen Dekel-Chen, 36, saw Hamas-led terrorists entering Nir Oz and was among the first to raise the alarm. He was last heard from at 9:30 a.m. on October 7, 2023, according to his father, Connecticut-born Jonathan Dekel-Chen, a Hebrew University professor who also lives at Nir Oz.
Sagui’s mother, Neomit, was taken captive along with her neighbors in an electric cart that was headed toward Gaza when an IDF helicopter shot at the terrorists and driver. Neomit, injured, made her way back toward the kibbutz, and was eventually rescued and evacuated.
His then-pregnant wife Avital and two young daughters also survived the massacre in Nir Oz. His third daughter, Shachar, born two months later, celebrated her first birthday in December without her father.
“There’s no way for us to know if he’s even aware that his wife and two — now three — daughters survived the massacre at Nir Oz,” the hostage’s father told The Times last month. “I think that alone must be torture.”
Argentinian-Israel citizen Horn, 46, was also abducted from his home on October 7, as Hamas terrorists swarmed through the kibbutz, killing or kidnapping a quarter of the southern community’s residents.
His younger brother, Eitan Horn, 38, who was visiting from Kfar Saba for the holiday weekend, was also kidnapped and is still held in Gaza. He is not on the list of “humanitarian” cases — women, children, elderly individuals and the infirm — slated for release in the first stage of the ceasefire.
Following the announcement of the three civilian hostages set to be freed, the Hamas prisoners’ media office said Israel would release 369 Palestinian prisoners on Saturday as part of the exchange, including 36 serving life sentences.
The remaining 333 prisoners slated were detained in Gaza after October 7, over the course of the war.
Under the terms of the ceasefire that went into effect last month, 17 hostages are still slated to be released under the deal’s first stage, nine of whom are believed to still be alive.
Recent weeks have seen the terror group release 16 Israelis and five Thai hostages under the arrangement, which also requires Israel to free some 2,000 Palestinian security prisoners, including hundreds of terrorists serving life sentences and lengthy terms for attacks.
But serious doubts remain over subsequent stages of the deal, which have yet to be negotiated.
Seventy-three of the 251 hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Before the current ceasefire that came into effect in January, the terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.
Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the body of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014. The body of another IDF soldier, also killed in 2014, was recovered from Gaza in January.
Charlie Summers contributed to this report.