American-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen will be among the three hostages being released by Hamas in the latest exchange planned for this weekend, Israel announced Friday.
The 36-year-old father of three — who has family in Connecticut — will be released along with Russian-Israeli Alexandre Sasha Troufanov, 29, and Argentinian-Israeli Iair Horn, 46, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, officials said.
The announcement came after days of uncertainty about whether the cease-fire agreed to last month would hold.
The US-backed agreement ultimately held up following intense mediating efforts by Egyptian and Qatari officials.
Dekel-Chen was one of the first people to spot the approaching Hamas incursion at Kibbutz Nir Oz on the morning of Oct. 7, and raised the alarm to his neighbors before locking his wife and children away in their home’s safe room.
He then went back outside into harm’s way to help the kibbutz security team, and was last heard from around 9:30 a.m., according to the Times of Israel.
Dekel-Chen and fellow American Keith Siegel, 65, were both included on a list of 33 hostages Hamas agreed to free in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in a 42-day truce.
Siegel was released on Feb. 1.
During that cease-fire, Israeli forces agreed to pull back from some of their positions in the decimated Gaza Strip and allow Palestinians to return to their homes.
Troufanov appeared in several Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas videos while in captivity, including one in which he complained about lack of food, water and medicine supplies and said he was suffering from a skin condition.
Troufanov, his mother, his grandmother, and his girlfriend, were all taken hostage during the Oct. 7 massacre at their home in Kibbutz Nir Orz.
His mother and grandmother were released in Nov. 2023, at the bidding of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his girlfriend freed in the first prisoner exchange later that month.
Horn was abducted with his brother, Eitan Horn, 46, who he was visiting at his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, on Oct. 7.
Iair Horn was included in the first round of releases while his brother remained hostage, according to The Times of Israel.