Hamas handed over three Israeli captives to the Red Cross in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis on Saturday in the sixth exchange since its ceasefire agreement with Israel.
Israeli-American Sagui Dekel-Chen, Israeli-Russian Sasha Trupanov and Israeli-Argentinian Yair Horn were paraded on a stage and told to address the crowd before their handover to the Red Cross.
There were doubts this week as to whether the release would take place, as Hamas accused Israel of violating the ceasefire deal and said it would postpone hostage releases.
A bus carrying a group of Palestinian detainees released Saturday by Israel under the Gaza ceasefire deal arrived to a cheering crowd in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, an AFP journalist reported.
Wearing traditional keffiyeh scarves, the freed prisoners were hoisted on the crowd’s shoulders and hugged relatives before heading to a quick health checkup, the journalist reported.
US President Donald Trump previously threatened Hamas with ‘all hell’ if the release of Israeli captives didn’t take place and in remarks on Friday said that if he were in Israel’s place he would take a “very hard” stance on Hamas.
