Inside the fragile Gaza talks as ceasefire pushed to brink

Hamas militants yesterday released three male Israeli hostages held for nearly 18 months, a few days after a tense standoff with Israel had seen the fragile ceasefire pushed to the brink of collapse.

- BEL TREW

Iair Horn, 46, a dual citizen of Israel and Argentina; AmericanIsraeli Sagui Dekel Chen, 36; and Russian-Israeli Sasha (Alexander) Troufanov, 29, were paraded by heavily armed militants on stage in the southern city of Khan Younis before being driven to Israel.

All were abducted from Nir Oz in the October 2023 attack that ignited the war.

More than 360 Palestinian detainees were also released yesterday. Among them were over 300 Palestinians from Gaza detained since 7 October and 36 serving life sentences, according to the Palestinian commission for detainees.

Eleventh-hour negotiations by Qatar, Egypt and the US pulled the fragile truce back from the brink, allowing the release of the three hostages. They appeared pale and worn yesterday but seemed to be in better physical condition than the three men released last week, who had emerged emaciated and sick, sparking uproar in Israel.

The family of Iair Horn, who has diabetes and so needs regular medical assistance, said they “can breathe a little” now he is free. But they added his brother Eithan, 38, remains in Gaza and is not part of the first stage of the ceasefire.

The family of American-Israeli father of three, Dekel Chen, said yesterday he would meet his baby daughter Shahar for the first time as she was born while he was in captivity.

The truce – which is only the first of three yet-to-be-fullynegotiated stages – came the closet yet to total collapse this week when Hamas had said it was postponing the next hostage releases, accusing Israel of violating the terms of the agreement, including shelling the territory and not allowing in shelters and humanitarian aid.

Israel’s leaders hit back with counter-claims and threatened to pull out of the agreement. Mr Netanyahu ordered reserves to be called up, soldiers’ leave was postponed, and military officials told The Independent they had deployed additional troops to the border regions.