3 hostages set to be released Saturday include Israeli American, Russian
Israel expected to release 369 Palestinian prisoners in exchange, Hamas says
Palestinian militant groups in Gaza said they would release hostages Iair Horn, American Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen and Russian Israeli Alexandre Sasha Troufanov on Saturday, in accordance with the terms of the ceasefire with Israel.
The announcement, after days of uncertainty about whether the ceasefire agreed last month would hold, followed intense efforts by Egyptian and Qatari mediators to keep last month's U.S.-backed agreement on track.
A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said 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-led gunmen on Oct. 7, 2023. Iair Horn's brother Eitan was taken at the same time and remains in captivity.
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 counterthreats of a resumption of fighting from Israel.
Even before Hamas's threat not to proceed with the hostage release, Israelis had been outraged by the emaciated appearance of the three hostages released last week and by the public display before a Gaza crowd when they were handed over to Red Cross officials.
Saturday will mark 6th hostage release
Hamas agreed last month to hand over 33 Israeli hostages, including women, children and older men, in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, during a 42-day truce in which Israeli forces would pull back from some of their positions in Gaza.
Saturday's release will be the sixth since the Israel-Hamas ceasefire took effect.
The truce was intended to open the way for a second phase of negotiations to return remaining hostages and complete the withdrawal of Israeli forces before a final end to the war and the rebuilding of Gaza.
Doubts about whether the deal would hold grew sharply after U.S. President Donald Trump called for Palestinians to be moved permanently out of Gaza and for the enclave to be turned over to the United States to be redeveloped.
The call was rejected by Palestinian groups and countries in the Arab world and labelled as "ethnic cleansing" by critics, including United Nations Secretary General António Guterres.
Trump said on Friday he would take a hard stance on Saturday on Gaza but did not expand on what that could mean.
Hamas accuses Israel of blocking aid
Gaza now lies largely in ruins and it remains unclear how it will be rebuilt.
Israel invaded the coastal enclave after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, in which Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The Israeli military campaign that followed has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Palestinian health ministry figures, destroyed many of its buildings and left most of the population homeless.
Hamas has accused Israel of blocking the entry of tens of thousands of tents and temporary shelter materials into Gaza, leaving tens of thousands exposed to the winter cold, a charge Israel has rejected.
"No caravans, heavy equipment or machinery have entered the Gaza Strip from the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing so far," said Salama Marouf, the head of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office.
"We hope they will enter in the coming hours according to assurances from the relevant parties."
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that co-ordinates the aid deliveries, said 4,200 humanitarian aid trucks had entered Gaza this week, carrying food, fuel, medical supplies, tents and shelter equipment.
International aid groups say more truckloads of aid have been entering Gaza since the start of the ceasefire, but say it is insufficient to meet the needs of the population.