Hamas released the hostages including American-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen and Sasha Alexander Troufanov and Iair Horn after exchanging 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees on February 15th, 2025. This exchange represents the sixth step in an unstable truce that Hamas and Israel have negotiated with each other.
The hostages who Hamas attacked Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023 appeared well while Hamas staged their Gaza show and then handed them to the Red Cross. Dekel-Chen at 36 years old pleaded with leaders to respect the ceasefire for the benefit of numerous others but Horn at 46 emphasized his worry about his detained brother. Islamic Jihad released Troufanov by himself during the hostage transfer process. He was 29 years old at the time of his special release.
The prisoner release occurred after tense diplomatic talks which resumed when Hamas leadership suspended the prisoner transfer deal because Israel was allegedly breaking the peace agreement. A combination of intervention from U.S. President Donald Trump as well as Arab leaders together with diplomatic mediators facilitated the reactivation of negotiations. Isaac Herzog served as Israeli President when he denounced the “hideous and manipulative” procedure used by Hamas during prisoner exchanges. 
The 42-day first stage of truce has resulted in the release of 19 Israeli and 5 Thai hostages as well as hundreds of Palestinian detainees. While Gaza currently has 73 hostages held there the number of presumed dead hostages amounts to 35 people. Both Palestinian and Israeli sides face ongoing challenges to maintain the political truce despite the loss of more than 48,000 Palestinian lives and the forced displacement of millions of people during this conflict.
