Israel confirms names of three hostages set for release from Gaza Saturday

Israel has received the names of the three hostages Hamas plans to release on Saturday through mediators Egypt and Qatar, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.

The hostages are Israeli-Russian Sasha Trupanov, Israeli-American Sagui Dekel-Chen and Israeli-Argentinian Yair Horn, the office said in a statement on Friday. All three were taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz when Hamas militants overran the kibbutz on October 7, 2023, killing or abducting one in four of the community’s residents.

Israel will also release 369 Palestinian security prisoners as part of the sixth hostage prisoner exchange, amas’ prisoners’ media office said Friday. Among them 36 are serving life sentences while the remaining 333 were detained in Gaza after October 7 during the ongoing war.

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Three Gaza hostages set for release today as ceasefire crisis eases Israel de-links itself from Trump threat, backs Gaza ceasefire deal for hostage release schedule

Hamas had earlier threatened not to release more hostages after it accused Israel of violating the terms of the ceasefire by blocking aid from entering Gaza, drawing counterthreats of a resumption of fighting from Israel.

The Palestinian group agreed last month to hand over 33 Israeli hostages including women, children and older men, in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, during a 42-dy truce in which Israeli forces would pull back from some of their positions in Gaza.

The truce was intended to open the way for a second phase of negotiations to return the remaining hostages and complete the withdrawal of Israeli forces before an end to the war and the rebuilding of Gaza.

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Doubts about whether the deal would hold grew sharply after U.S. President Donald Trump called for Palestinians to be moved permanently out of Gaza and for the enclave to be turned over to the United States to be redeveloped.

After 15 months of fighting, Gaza now lies largely in ruins and it remains unclear how it will be rebuilt.

During the October 7 attack, approximately 1,200 people mostly civilians were killed. In Israel’s retaliatory campaign, Gaza’s Health Ministry reports that more than 47,000 Palestinians have died and over half of whom are women and children.