On Saturday, Israel released 369 Palestinian terrorists in exchange for three hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7. 2023, 497 days ago. In the largest release to date,  the prisoners were released wearing sweatshirts featuring a Star of David and the phrase “Never forgive, never forget” in Arabic.

The prisoners were also reportedly given a wristband themed on the Shin Bet (Israel’s internal security service) and shown a film about the destruction in Gaza. Videos showed the returning terrorists burning the Israeli memorabilia.

The exchange marked the sixth stage of exchanges in the ongoing ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, resulting in the release of 21 Israelis in exchange for over 1,000 Palestinian terrorists serving terms in Israeli prisons. 

The hostages freed in this exchange were American-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, Argentine-Israeli Iair Horn, 46, and Russian-Israeli Alexander Troufanov, 29.

Ultimately, the ceasefire deal will see the exchange of a total of 33 Israeli hostages for 1,900 Palestinian prisoners. 

Seventy of the hostages abducted by Hamas on October 7, 2023, remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF.

Hamas has so far released 24 hostages — 19 Israeli civilians and female soldiers, and five Thai nationals — during a ceasefire that began in January. The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that.

Eight hostages have been rescued alive by troops, and the bodies of 40 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors.

333 of the released prisoners were from Gaza and were detained after Oct. 7, 2023. 334 prisoners were to be taken to Gaza, 24 faced deportation abroad, reportedly to Egypt, 10 were to be transferred to Judea and Samaria and one was to be sent to eastern Jerusalem.Thirty-six prisoners serving life sentences were among those released.