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One of the hostages spent almost 500 days in captivity alone. Sasha Troufanov, who was released from Hamas captivity on Saturday along with Sagui Dekel-Chen and Iair Horn, was held alone without other hostages by the Islamic Jihad terror organization. He suspected that his father, Vitaly, had been murdered in the October 7 massacre. After his release, IDF forces informed him of the death of his father and he immediately burst into tears.
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Hostage Iair Horn is given an hourglass with a photo of hostage Matan Zangauker and his mother, Einav, during the 'release ceremony' in Khan
(Photo: Ramadan Abed/Reuters)
Meanwhile, it has been reported that Sagui Dekel-Chen and Iair Horn were held captive together in recent days, alongside other hostages. Yair's mother said that he was in the tunnels, and the two other hostages who were released were also with them. They recently were also held in apartments and even taken outside, seen from the undated video released on Friday by the Palestinians Islamic Jihad of Troufanov walking on the Gaza beach.
All three spent the entire period of captivity in Khan Younis, the place from which they were released, located hundreds of meters away from Kibbutz Nir Oz, from where they were kidnapped. The treatment of the hostages at the beginning of the captivity was violent, and they were not spared psychological terror.
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Iair Horn in the helicopter on the way to the hospital; 'Eitan, You're next'
(Photo: IDF Spokesman's Unit)
Hamas terrorists informed Sagui Dekel-Chen that a daughter had been born to him while he was in captivity, and brought earrings for him to give to his wife. He asked upon meeting with the IDF representatives following the handoff from the Red Cross if he truly had a new daughter, because he did not believe them.
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Iair Horn knew that his brother Eitan was also a hostage and said that he was with him in a tunnel at the beginning of their captivity, and that his brother was wounded in the leg. He asked the IDF representatives when his brother would be released from captivity. In the helicopter on the way to the hospital in Israel, he wrote: "Eitan, you're next!"
At the highly staged propaganda display 'release ceremony', Iair Horn received from Hamas an hourglass with a picture of Einav Zangauker and her son Matan. Security officials intend to give the hourglass to Einav Zangauker, who said during the weekly demonstration in Hostages' Square on Saturday night: "The hourglass with Matan's picture is in front of my eyes. Time is running out."
In addition, as in the previous rounds, this time too, the hostages who were released carried with them the same bags with "gifts" from their captors which were first seen in the first round in which Yarden Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher were released.