On Saturday, February 15th, Hamas released 3 Israeli hostages in exchange for Israel releasing 369 Palestinian prisoners. This marks the sixth round of a prisoner swap since the fragile ceasefire agreement in Gaza took effect earlier this week.
According to the Times of Israel, the three released hostages are Sacha Trupanov, a 29-year-old dual Israeli-Russian citizen, Sagui Dekel-Chen, a 36-year-old dual Israeli-American citizen, and Yair Horn, a 46-year-old dual Israeli-Arab citizen.
The three hostages were handed over to members of the Red Cross and transported by the Red Cross to Israeli Defense Forces soldiers at a second location in the Gaza Strip. From there, they were taken to Israel for initial medical checks and to reunite with their families.
On the same day, Israel released 369 Palestinian prisoners, including 36 convicted terrorists serving life sentences for killing dozens of people, in exchange for the three hostages. The remaining 333 prisoners had been captured in Gaza after October 7th during the war.
Reuters reported that there was a risk of the ceasefire agreement collapsing during the hostage exchange process. However, with mediation, the exchange was successfully completed. Some of the Palestinians released had been involved in major attack incidents. In addition, Israeli hostages released since January 19th reflected that they had been held captive in underground tunnels for a long time, lacking food, sunlight, and subjected to physical and mental abuse.
While both sides are currently observing a temporary ceasefire, tensions remain high. International mediation was involved in the release process, with Hamas and Israel accusing each other of violating the agreement.
The latest updates indicate that both parties are planning to further negotiate expanding the scope of exchanges to stabilize the situation and prevent new conflicts.