Hamas has released at least three Israeli hostages from captivity early Saturday amid fears of a renewed war in Gaza.
Tribune Online reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier warned that the ceasefire in Gaza would end if Hamas did not release Israeli hostages by Saturday.
The Prime Minister made this statement after Hamas announced on Monday that it would not release three Israeli hostages as planned, citing alleged Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement.
However, in a latest development today, Hamas has released the three Israeli hostages and handed them over to the Red Cross.
The three hostages are Israel-Russian national Alexander Troufanov, Israeli-Argentine citizen Yair Horn, and Israeli-American Sagui Dekel-Chen.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office, Israel is expected to release 369 Palestinian prisoners later.
Under the current ceasefire agreement, 17 Israeli hostages were due to be released in the first phase. However, Israel has stated that eight of them are already dead. In exchange, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners have been freed by Israel.
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