(From left) Israeli-American Sagui Dekel-Chen, Israeli-Argentinian hostage Iair Horn and Israeli-Russian Sasha Trupanov stand on stage next to Hamas fighters during their handover over to a Red Cross team in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on February 15, 2025, as part of the sixth hostage-prisoner exchange.
Israeli captives Iair Horn, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Sasha (Alexander) Troufanov arrived at a release site in Gaza on Saturday after Egyptian and Qatari mediators helped avert a standoff that threatened to sink a fragile ceasefire.
Armed Hamas fighters led the three onto a stage at the site in Gaza’s Khan Younis, live footage showed.
The three are being returned in exchange for 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, a swap which eases fears that the agreement could collapse before the end of a 42-day ceasefire.
Dekel-Chen, a US-Israeli, Troufanov, a Russian Israeli, and Horn, whose brother Eitan was also abducted, were seized in Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the communities around the Gaza Strip that was overrun by Hamas gunmen on October 7, 2023.
Red cross vehicles arrived at the Israeli hostage handover site in Gaza’s Khan Younis on Saturday, live footage showed.
Hamas is set to hand over Israeli hostages Iair Horn, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Sasha Troufanov to the Red Cross, after mediation efforts by Egypt and Qatar helped maintain a fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel that has halted fighting for almost a month.
