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Three Israeli hostages held in Gaza since October 7, 2023, are set to be released on Saturday, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed Friday.
The hostages—Sagui Dekel-Chen, an American-Israeli national; Iair Horn; and Russian-Israeli Alexander "Sasha" Troufanov—will return home after 497 days in captivity.
Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, while his wife, Avital, then seven months pregnant, hid in the safe room with their two young daughters. Before Hamas terrorists reached him, Dekel-Chen managed to tell his wife that no Israeli forces were coming to defend the kibbutz.
Avital and their daughters remained safe, and in his absence, their third child, Shahar, was born. His family has been at the forefront of U.S. lobbying efforts, advocating for his release.
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Avital, wife of hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen, with her two little girls and her newborn daughter Shahar
(Photo: Courtesy of the family)
Sasha Troufanov, 29, from Tel Aviv, was visiting his mother, Elena, and grandmother, Irena Tati, at Kibbutz Nir Oz when Hamas launched its attack. His father Vitaliy was murdered, and Troufanov, along with his mother, grandmother and girlfriend Sapir Cohen, was taken hostage. The women were freed in the November 2023 hostage deal, but Troufanov remained in captivity under Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
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In a propaganda video released by the group last year, Troufanov described severe conditions in captivity: "A year that I have been here in captivity, a year in which there is a shortage of food and water, no electricity," he said. "I want to remind the citizens of Israel—every time you eat something or drink something, remember us hostages. We don’t have this opportunity."
His mother repeatedly urged Russian officials to secure his release. In January, Russian Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov said that Hamas had assured the Kremlin that Troufanov would be freed in the first phase of the cease-fire deal.
Before his abduction, Troufanov worked at Amazon, and he and Sapir had just moved in together a month before the Hamas attack.
Iair Horn, 46, was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz alongside his younger brother, Eitan, who had come to visit from Kfar Saba. Their family had immigrated to Israel from Argentina, and their mother, Ruthie Horn, said they only received confirmation of Iair being alive from freed hostages in November 2023.
However, Eitan, 38, is not among the hostages set to be released in the first, humanitarian phase of the deal.