In Tel Aviv, where the hostages' relatives and the public followed the release on a large screen, great jubilation erupted when the Red Cross cars rolled out of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. Shortly afterwards, it was announced that the three were on Israeli soil.
At about the same time, Israel began releasing nearly 370 Palestinians from prison. The first bus with Palestinian prisoners from Ofer Prison on the occupied West Bank was met with jubilation when it arrived in Ramallah, according to AFP, which also reports that four former prisoners were taken to hospital.
Busloads of prisoners are also leaving a prison in the Negev Desert.
Among the Palestinians to be released during the day is Ahmed Barghouti, a close associate of the imprisoned uprising leader Marwan Barghouti. The latter has been a popular leader within the Fatah movement and is seen as a possible future Palestinian president.
On stage
In Khan Yunis, the hostages were taken to the flag-adorned release site in a white minibus. Before they were released, they were pushed onto a stage by masked Hamas men and asked to say a few words in front of the TV cameras.
A few minutes earlier, the Red Cross representative and Hamas representative had signed the release agreement on stage. The entire procedure, with the release being turned into a kind of propaganda show, has been criticized by Israel.
All the released are men: They are Argentine-Israeli Yair Horen, Russian-Israeli Sasha Trufanov, and Sagui Dekel-Chen, who is an Israeli and American citizen. All three were taken from the kibbutz Nir Oz during Hamas' large-scale attack on October 7, 2023, which triggered the war.
There are reports that Trufanov was held by the Islamist movement Islamic Jihad. He has appeared in several video recordings, and his mother, Lena Trufanov, who was also taken hostage but released after more than a month, has sounded the alarm about his condition.
Fragile thread
The ceasefire agreement in the Gaza War between Israel and the terrorist-listed Hamas is in its first phase. However, during the week, both parties have directed accusations at each other, and the weekend's exchange has hung by a fragile thread. Israel had threatened Hamas with resuming the war if the hostages were not released.
Saturday's prisoner exchange is the sixth since the ceasefire came into force on January 19.
Phase one began on January 19 and will last for six weeks. During this time, Palestinian Hamas and their allies will release a total of 33 people held hostage in the Gaza Strip.
In return, Israel will release a total of approximately 730 Palestinians from Israeli prisons, as well as approximately 1,100 who have been detained by the military in the Gaza Strip as part of the war.
Much more aid and supplies will also be allowed into the million-strong population of Gaza.
Two more phases of the ceasefire are being prepared, but the details of them remain to be negotiated.
The Gaza War began with terrorist-listed Hamas' large-scale attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
Sources: Haaretz, BBC.
