Sagui Dekel-Chen, the second American to be released in the latest phase of the hostage deal, is set to return home on Saturday.
Twenty-nine-year-old Russian-Israeli citizen Alexander “Sasha” Troufanov, and 46-year-old Argentinian-Israeli Iair Horn will also be released. In exchange for the three men, Israel plans to release 36 terrorists serving life sentences and 333 people suspected of terrorism who were arrested after October 7, Jewish News Syndicate reported.
When Hamas terrorists entered Nir Oz, 36-year-old Sagui put his pregnant wife Avital and their children in a safe room and went to defend the kibbutz. He was then taken hostage by Hamas. Upon his return, he will reunite with his family and the young daughter he has yet to meet.
In an interview with The Daily Wire on the anniversary of October 7, Dekel-Chen’s father, Jonathan, said his life has been a “living hell” since his son was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen said his life has been a “living hell” since his son, Sagui Dekel-Chen — an American citizen — was taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz by Hamas terrorists one year ago.
My interview with him: pic.twitter.com/CJX7pYCV27
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) October 8, 2024
Jonathan said his son was involved in serving the Jewish and Arab Bedouin communities of southern Israel, and was working on converting old buses to usable objects for underserved communities on the morning of October 7.
“He’s the son that any parent would dream of,” Dekel-Chen said. “It’s such a terrible waste that he and another 100 — almost all of them civilians — have had their lives and the lives of their families destroyed this way.”
During his speech at the Remembering October 7 event hosted Monday by the Philos Project in Washington, D.C., Dekel-Chen said he often wonders how much Sagui knew in captivity about the fate of the rest of his family.
“Ever since he was taken, I ask myself, what does he know? Does he know that his wife and two young daughters or anyone from [nearby] all survived the massacre? Does he know that his youngest daughter, Shahar, which means Dawn in Hebrew, was born in mid-December?”
Out of about 400 residents of Nir Oz, 51 were murdered and 79 others were taken hostage, according to Jonathan.
Troufanov, who was also abducted from Nir Oz, was taken with his parents, grandmother, and partner, Sapir Cohen. His father was killed in captivity and the others were released in the November 2023 hostage deal. It is believed that he is unaware of his father’s death.
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Cohen said she saw Troufanov “beaten bloody and thrown face-first into the ground” by terrorists, according to her interview in the Italian newspaper Libero Quotidiano. Russian Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov recently revealed that Troufanov’s “condition is poor,” Israel Hayom reported.
Amazon has been under fire since October 7 for failing to condemn the abduction of Troufanov, who worked in the Annapurna Labs division of Amazon.
Horn was abducted from Nir Oz with his brother Eitan on October 7. Eitan remains in captivity and is not on the list of names to be released under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement. Horn, who moved to Israel from Argentina, is known for organizing celebrations and events at the kibbutz, doing stand-up comedy, radio broadcasting, and more.
In the first phase of the deal thus far, 16 out of 33 hostages have been released, with five additional Thai hostages being released in a separate deal. Seventy-six hostages remain in captivity, 73 of whom were abducted on October 7. The fate of those not slated for the first phase will be negotiated in later phases.
So far, 566 Palestinian terrorist prisoners have been released in exchange for the hostages, with about an additional 1,300 set to be released in the first phase, Jewish News Syndicate reported.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump said Israel’s ceasefire with Hamas should be canceled if the terror group does not release “all the Gaza hostages” by noon on Saturday.
“If all the Gaza hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 p.m., I would say cancel the ceasefire,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “Let all hell break out. Israel can override it.”
Trump said that he meant “all the hostages,” a departure from the ceasefire agreement, under which a few hostages were released each week.
“Not in dribs and drabs, not two and one and three and four and two,” he said “Saturday at 12 o’clock, and after that I would say, all hell is going to break out.”
In response, Hamas said it was committed to following the deal as it is and would not be releasing all of the hostages.
Last Saturday, Trump said he was losing patience with Hamas following the return of three Israeli hostages who were in dangerously poor health.
“I watched the hostages return today, and they looked like Holocaust survivors,” Trump said. “They were in horrible condition, emaciated. It looked like many years ago, the Holocaust survivors. I don’t know how much longer we can take that.”
“At some point, we are going to lose our patience,” Trump added. “When I see that scene that I saw today of people coming out of helicopters and airplanes that are emaciated, that look like they haven’t had a meal in a month, there’s no reason for that, and I don’t know how much longer we can take it.”
