Hamas released three more Israeli hostages at a ceremony on Saturday, which was used by some provocative dramas by Palestinian militants in a previous release.
It was a series of tense series of hostage prisoner exchanges as part of a 42-day ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that came into effect last month. Overall, Hamas agreed to release 33 of the nearly 100 people arrested on October 7, 2023. Israelis agreed to release more than 1,000 Palestinians in their prisons and partly withdraw from Gaza.
Here are three civilian hostages, including Israeli Americans, who were released on Saturday:
Sagui Dekel-Chen
Dekel-chen is an Israeli American who played for the Israeli national basketball team when he was 35 years old when he was taken away from Nir Oz in southern Israel and approached Nir Oz attacked on the Gaza border on October 7, 2023.
He is the father of three children. His youngest child was born during his imprisonment. Mr. Dekel-Chen served as the National Coordinator for the British branch of the Jewish State Foundation and, together with his wife, converted the bus for new uses, such as mobile classrooms.
Dekel-Chen’s family actively advocated a ceasefire agreement. His father, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, a history professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, wrote an opinion article for the New York Times criticizing the Israeli government for not taking hostages back Home.
In August, the professor told The Times that he and other members of Nir Oz Kibbutz would not attend formal government ceremonies and then planned to commemorate the October 7 attack. He said they were “shocked by the idea of this government establishing a ceremony that would distract them from the culprit.”
Dekel-Chen’s mother, Neomit Dekel-Chen, and some neighbors, were also arrested in the October 7 attack. According to one of her statements to Israeli news media, she escaped from a tram heading towards Gaza when Israeli military helicopters fired at militants.
Mr. Horn was 45 when he was visited on weekends with his two brothers, Eitan. Iair Horn works in construction and his brother serves as teachers.
Iair Horn was born in Israel and raised in Argentina. According to their mother, Ruth Strom, he returned to Israel with his parents and siblings, Ruth Strom said. They are part of the large Argentine community of Kibbutz, including other families waiting for the hostages to return.
Eitan Horn has not been released in the first phase of the ceasefire deal, and Ms Strom said she was worried that Iair would have to leave her brother behind.
Their father Itzik Horn said in December 2023 that the Israeli military had mistakenly shot three hostages and fled the kidnappers in Gaza, even if it meant the release of prisoners designated as terrorists. , Israel must also reach an agreement.
“The most important thing is not to beat Hamas,” he said in an interview. “The only victory here is to take all the hostages back.”
Mr. Trufanov, a dual Russian Israeli citizen, was 27 years old when he was arrested and visited his family in Neil Oz on 7 October. His father was killed, his mother, grandmother and girlfriend were taken hostage, but were released during the early cessation. Fire, November 2023.
Mr. Trufanov lives in the outskirts of Tel Aviv with his girlfriend and works for an Amazon-owned company, and he saw it in a video released by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second most aggressive in Gaza since Hamas Organization – Last November. He looked tired, with untrimmed beard and bags under his eyes and said there was a lack of food and water.
In October, senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk told Russia today that he had spoken with the Islamic Jihad about Mr. Trufanov that Hamas would be in any exchange of hostages and He v. Putin of Russia is preferred among Palestinian prisoners.
