Hamas is due to release three more Israeli hostages on Saturday in exchange for more than 360 Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli prisons, as an impasse over the Gaza cease-fire earlier in the week appears to have been resolved.
The hostages due to be freed are Alexander Troufanov, Yair Horn and Sagui Dekel-Chen. Israel will release 369 Palestinian prisoners, according to the Palestinian authorities, in accordance with the terms of the cease-fire agreement.
The Palestinian militant group reached a deal with Israel in mid-January on a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip after 16 months of retaliatory attacks by Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, assault by Hamas.
All three of the men to be released Saturday were seized in Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the communities around the Gaza Strip that was overrun by Hamas gunmen in the 2023 attack, Reuters reported. Horn’s brother Eitan was taken at the same time and remains in captivity, it said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week threatened more attacks if Hamas didn’t abide by the cease-fire deal and free more detainees. “If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the cease-fire will end, and the IDF will return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated,” Netanyahu said in a statement on Feb. 11.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola crossed into the Gaza Strip from Israel at noon Thursday to “witness firsthand the humanitarian assistance delivery at the border region,” her office told POLITICO.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that “all hell is going to break out” and that the cease-fire agreement should be terminated if Hamas doesn’t release the remaining hostages by midday Saturday. “If they’re not returned — all of them, not in dribs and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two — by Saturday at 12 o’clock,” Trump said. “And after that, I would say, all hell is going to break out.”
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