Palestinian militant groups Hamas said they would release hostages Iair Horn, US-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen and Russian-Israeli Alexandre Sasha Troufanov on Saturday, in accordance with the terms of the ceasefire with Israel.
The announcement is coming after days of uncertainty about whether the ceasefire agreed last month would hold amid intense efforts by Egyptian and Qatari mediators to keep last month’s US-backed agreement on track.
According to a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, Israel accepted the list but that was later corrected to say Israel had received the list, which it said was a purely factual description that did not reflect any Israeli approach to the issue.
Hamas said Israel was expected to release 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in exchange.
All three of the hostages due to be released on Saturday were seized in Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the communities around the Gaza Strip that was overrun by Hamas gunmen on October 7, 2023.
Iair Horn’s brother Eitan was taken at the same time and remains in captivity.
Recall that 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 counter threats of a resumption of fighting from Israel.
