Russian ambassador: Hamas hostage Trufanov was wounded

Russian Alexander Trufanov, a prisoner of the Palestinian Hamas movement, was wounded at the stage of hostage-taking. This was reported by Russian Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov on January 21.

"Unfortunately, there are reports that he was wounded and his health condition is not quite satisfactory. We hope that his health condition will not worsen over the remaining few days," the diplomat said on air of the Rossiya 24 TV channel.

As Viktorov specified, Trufanov's injury did not occur during his stay as a hostage in the Gaza Strip.

According to him, the Hamas leadership gave the Russian side a firm promise that Trufanov would be returned alive and well within the framework of the ceasefire agreement with Israel.

Contributing to the freeze: how the truce between Israel and Hamas will work and how long it will last

On the first day of the deal, the Palestinian movement freed three hostages

The day before, Russian President Vladimir Putin asked the Foreign Ministry to do everything for Trufanov's release. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow was working on this as part of the Palestinian movement's deal with Israel.

On January 19, the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip began to hold, and Hamas handed over three Israeli hostages to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Israel released the first 90 Palestinian prisoners as part of the deal the next day.

In the first phase, which will last 42 days, the Israeli side is expected to release about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 33 Hamas hostages. According to The Times of Israel, Trufanov is on the lists for the exchange.

The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7, 2023, when Hamas subjected the territory of Israel to a massive rocket attack from the Gaza Strip. On the same day, Israel began retaliatory strikes.