Latest news with #PrisonersMediaOffice
Saba Yemen
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Saba Yemen
Palestinian Prisoners Media: Enemy's crimes cannot go unpunished
Gaza - Saba: The Palestinian Prisoners Media Office confirmed that the violations committed by the Zionist enemy against Palestinian prisoners amount to war crimes and cannot go unpunished. In a press statement, the Prisoners Media Office called on international human rights institutions to assume their legal and humanitarian responsibilities and open an urgent investigation into the enemy's crimes against prisoners. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print more of (International)
Washington Post
15-02-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
IF IF IF American hostage Sagui Dekel-Chen freed during Israel-Hamas ceasefire
Sagui Dekel-Chen, an American Israeli dual national abducted by Hamas in Israel during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, was released on Saturday as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, bringing to an end his 16 months in captivity. Dekel-Chen, 36, is a father of three but has not met his youngest, as he was kidnapped when his wife was pregnant. His release follows a tense week during which Hamas said it would delay freeing hostages in response to alleged Israeli violations of the ceasefire and later reversed course. Saturday's release also included Sasha Alexander Troufanov, 29, who holds Russian and Israeli citizenship; and Iair Horn, 46, who was born in Argentina. They were set to be exchanged for 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees being held by Israel, according to the Hamas-run Prisoners Media Office. Israel did not immediately confirm. The agreement between Israel and Hamas, which began Jan. 19, involves a 42-day ceasefire in the first phase, during which 33 hostages, most of whom are presumed to be alive, are being released. Another American, Keith Siegel, 65, was freed Feb. 1, and there is now one remaining U.S. citizen held hostage, Edan Alexander, who was serving in the Israeli military and is not planned to be released in the first phase. On the morning of his abduction, Dekel-Chen, a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was at his workshop where he was working to convert a bus into a mobile classroom. His wife, Avital, who was then seven months pregnant, and their two young daughters survived by hiding in a safe room for nine harrowing hours. His family was informed by hostages released in November 2023 that he was alive in Gaza but wounded. Avital gave birth to their third daughter two months after his kidnapping. She named the baby Shachar, which means dawn in Hebrew. Dekel-Chen's father, Jonathan, originally from Connecticut, immigrated to Israel in the 1980s. Dekel-Chen spent four years in the United States, where he discovered a love of baseball, and later played on Israel's junior national team. In an interview with Slate in 2023, his father said that Dekel-Chen loved life on Nir Oz and 'grew up in the agricultural machine shop, as my tagalong in the fields, supervising and servicing machinery.' As an adult, he developed a passion for repurposing old buses into new spaces, including a mobile home and a grocery store. Avital, whom he met as a teenager, sometimes jokingly asked if he loved his buses more than her. Speaking to the Times newspaper last month, his father stressed, 'There's no way for us to know if he's even aware that his wife and two, now three, daughters survived the massacre at Nir Oz,' adding, 'I think that alone must be torture.' Sharing a poignant reflection on Instagram last year, Avital wrote that she sometimes doesn't recognize her own life when scrolling through photos on her phone. 'In all this chaos, I just want to see one thing,' she wrote, addressing Sagui: 'Your face.' Karen DeYoung and Ellie Silverman contributed to this report.
Washington Post
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Live Briefing: Hamas names hostages it will release Saturday, including American citizen
The Palestinian militant group Hamas on Friday published the names of three hostages held in the Gaza Strip that it said it would release Saturday as part of a ceasefire deal with Israel, including an American citizen. Israel confirmed it had received three names from Qatari and Egyptian mediators. They included Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, the American hostage, Sasha Alexander Troufanov, 29, who holds Russian and Israeli citizenship, and Iair Horn, 46, who was born in Argentina. All three were residents of Kibbutz Nir Oz, where they were taken by Hamas fighters during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. The Hamas-run Prisoners Media Office said that Israel, in exchange for the hostages, was expected to release 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees. Israel did not immediately disclose how many Palestinians would be released. The announcements appeared to resolve a dispute between Hamas and Israel that had imperiled the ceasefire. Hamas said Monday that it would delay Saturday's hostages releases over alleged Israeli ceasefire violations. President Donald Trump then warned that 'all hell is going to break out' if Hamas did not free hostages by Saturday, in threats echoed by Israeli officials. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered troops to mass inside and around Gaza. Dekel-Chen had been working in the kibbutz machine shop to convert airport buses into mobile classrooms when the attack began, according to his family. His wife, Avital, who was seven months pregnant, survived by hiding in a safe room for nine hours with their two young daughters. Two months later, she gave birth to their third daughter, who has yet to meet her father. Dekel-Chen's release would leave one remaining American hostage in Gaza. Troufanov was also a resident of Kibbutz Nir Oz. He was taken by Hamas fighters along with his mother, Elena, grandmother Irina Tati, and girlfriend, Sapir Cohen. His father, Vitaly, was killed in the attack. Horn, who is known for organizing Purim parties and managing the kibbutz pub, was taken alongside his brother Eitan, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. The Israeli Prime Minister's Office, in confirming the list of names, declined to say whether the number of hostages being released was sufficient. TEL AVIV — The signs of extreme malnutrition evinced by some of the recently released Israeli hostages were only the most visible evidence of the torture they recall enduring in Hamas captivity. The 16 Israeli hostages freed in recent weeks after being held in Gazan tunnels and homes for more than a year have begun to provide accounts to their families of being beaten, chained, burned and violently interrogated, according to relatives. Former hostages said their captors tormented them by boasting that Israel no longer existed and taunted them about the fate of family members, who in many cases were killed or abducted during the Hamas-led assault on Israel 16 months ago. The psychological torment continued into the very last moments before their release, as Hamas forced the hostages to praise their captors in their holding cells and then smile for cameras during staged ceremonies that preceded their journey home. 'Hamas was trying to show us that they still have a certain level of control over what's going on,' said Lee Siegel, the brother of Keith Siegel, a 65-year-old American Israeli hostage who was released earlier this month and given two departing 'goody bags,' one for him and one stuffed with chocolate, perfume and a 'captivity certificate' for Aviva, his wife, who alongside him had been dragged from their home in southern Israel and released during the first hostage deal, in November 2023.
