Palestinian Islamic Jihad announced Trufanov's release on February 15

The Palestinian radical organization "Islamic Jihad" will release tomorrow, February 15, Russian Alexander Trufanov, who is being held in the Gaza Strip. A representative of the group's militant wing said on February 14.

"We decided to release <...> Alexander Trufanov tomorrow, Saturday, as part of the sixth stage of the first phase of the first phase of the prisoner exchange agreement," he was quoted as saying by the Palestinian news agency Quds NN on Telegram.

In addition, 35-year-old US citizen Sagi Dekel Hen and 46-year-old Israeli citizen Yair Horn will be released.

Earlier, on February 4, Hamas deputy politburo chief Musa Abu Marzouk told Izvestia that everything is fine with Trufanov and he will be released soon.

On January 19, the first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into effect. During this phase of the deal, which will last 42 days, 33 Israeli hostages and about 1.9 thousand Palestinians are to be released. On the same day, the movement released three hostages in exchange for 90 Palestinian prisoners, and on January 26, four military girls were handed over to the Red Cross. They were subsequently flown back to their homeland.

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