KHAN YUNIS, Palestinian Territories: Gaza militants handed three Israeli hostages over to the Red Cross on Saturday (Feb 15) in an exchange that is also set to see the release of 369 Palestinians from Israeli custody, the latest such swap under an ongoing truce deal.
An AFP journalist saw masked Hamas militants parade the hostages onto a stage in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Yunis, where they were told to address the crowd before their handover to the Red Cross.
Clutching gift bags given by their captors and a certificate to mark the end of their captivity, the three men, flanked by fighters, called for the completion of further hostage exchanges under the ceasefire deal.
The release, the sixth since the truce took effect on Jan 19, came after fears last week that the deal between Israel and Hamas was near collapse. But on Friday both sides signalled that Saturday’s swap would go ahead.
Dozens of Hamas fighters lined up around the stage bearing the logo of the group’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, as Palestinian nationalist music played.
Sources from Hamas and Islamic Jihad said the groups had deployed about 200 militants for the handover ceremony.
A crowd also gathered in Tel Aviv’s “Hostages Square” to watch the exchange, with many carrying Israeli flags and posters in support of the captives.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had named the hostages as Israeli-American Sagui Dekel-Chen, Israeli-Russian Sasha Trupanov and Israeli-Argentinian Yair Horn.
They had been held by Gaza militants since Hamas’ Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the war 16 months ago.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club advocacy group said Israel was to release 369 inmates in exchange, with 24 of them expected to be deported.
Almost all of the rest are “prisoners from the Gaza Strip who were arrested after Oct 7”, the group said.
After the deal had appeared to be on the brink of collapse, a Hamas official on Friday said the group expected talks on a second phase of the ceasefire to begin early next week.
United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose country is Israel’s top backer and one of the truce mediators, is due to arrive in Israel late Saturday ahead of expected talks with Netanyahu on the Gaza truce.
Last week’s release sparked anger in Israel and beyond after the freed hostages were paraded onstage, with their emaciated state sparking concern over conditions in captivity.
Israeli-American hostage Keith Siegel, released in a previous exchange, said he was “starved and … tortured, both physically and emotionally” during his captivity.
There were also fears for Palestinians in Israeli custody after some prisoners required medical treatment following their release in the last swap.
