Israel has released 333 Palestinians in its custody after the resistance group Hamas released three more hostages. According to a report by Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera, a convoy of buses carrying 333 Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli prisons has reached the southern Gaza Strip’s Khan Younis area.
Earlier, according to an AFP report, Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages to the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip’s Khan Younis area in the sixth prisoner exchange under a ceasefire agreement with Israel.
According to the report, the three hostages released, who have dual citizenship, Israeli-American Sagui Dekel-Chen, Israeli-Russian Sasha Tropanov and Israeli-Argentine Yair Horn, were placed on a specially prepared stage and asked to speak before being handed over to the Red Cross.
The three Israeli prisoners spoke briefly on stage, surrounded by masked Hamas fighters, and were videotaped.
According to a statement issued by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the citizens released today were taken into custody by Hamas after the October 7, 2023 attack.
The advocacy group Palestine Prisoners Club said that in exchange, Israel would release 369 prisoners, of whom 24 would be deported, the majority of whom, 333, are prisoners from Gaza who were arrested after October 7.
