Hamas names three Israeli hostages to be released on Saturday

Hamas said it would release hostages Iair Horn, US-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen and Russian-Israeli Alexandre Sasha Troufanov on Saturday, in accordance with the terms of the ceasefire with Israel.

The announcement, after days of uncertainty about whether the ceasefire agreed last month would hold, followed intense efforts by Egyptian and Qatari mediators to keep last month's US-backed agreement on track.

A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel accepted the list but that was later corrected to say Israel had received the list, which it said was a "purely factual description" that did not reflect any Israeli approach to the issue.

Hamas said Israel was expected to release 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in exchange. All three of the hostages due to be released on Saturday were seized in Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the communities around the Gaza Strip that was overrun on Oct.7, 2023.

Iair Horn's brother Eitan was taken at the same time and remains in captivity. Hamas had earlier threatened not to release more hostages after it accused Israel of violating the terms of the ceasefire by blocking aid from entering Gaza, drawing counterthreats of a resumption of fighting from Israel.

Even before the Hamas threat not to proceed with the hostage release, Israelis had been outraged by the emaciated appearance of the three hostages released last week and by the public display before a Gaza crowd when they were handed over to Red Cross officials.

Hamas agreed last month to hand over 33 Israeli hostages, including women, children and older men, in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, during a 42-day truce in which Israeli forces would pull back from some of their positions in Gaza.

The truce was intended to open the way for a second phase of negotiations to return remaining hostages and complete the withdrawal of Israeli forces before a final end to the war and the rebuilding of Gaza.

Reuters