Middle East conflict
Hamas lets hostages go: two Americans are released
After Hamas attacked Israel, relatives and their supporters are demanding the return of the hostages. photo
© Sam McNeil/AP/dpa
The Islamist Hamas abducted more than 200 people from Israel to the Gaza Strip around two weeks ago – including children, women and the elderly. Now two of the hostages are free again.
Almost two weeks after the kidnapping of more than 200 people from Israel, the Islamist Hamas released two of the hostages in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government confirmed the release of the two women on Friday evening. It’s about mother and daughter. According to the US government, the two are Americans. These are the first Hamas hostages in the conflict to be released.
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the Israeli responsible for the abductees and missing persons, Brigadier General Gal Hirsch, received the two women at the border of the Gaza Strip. The two were then taken to a military base in the center of the country where they were to be reunited with family members.
Media in Israel published a first photo of the two of them on Israeli territory that night. The women can be seen hand in hand with deer. Three armed soldiers accompany them.
According to the US government, Qatar helped release the two women. However, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken did not provide details when asked. Hamas’s military wing had previously announced that it had released two American citizens “on humanitarian grounds” in “response to Qatar’s efforts.”
Israel: Majority of hostages alive
Terrorists on behalf of Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip, carried out a massacre of civilians in Israel on October 7th. More than 1,400 people died during and in the following days. According to the Israeli army, at least 203 others were forcibly taken to the Gaza Strip, including several Germans. The army says it believes most of the hostages are still alive. According to the military, more than 20 children and young people are among those kidnapped.
An Israeli military spokesman told CNN that the two now released hostages were being medically examined and cared for. They were on vacation in Israel. According to Israeli sources, the two had spent the night in a kibbutz from where they were abducted. The Israeli military spokesman said armed Hamas terrorists entered the house early in the morning and dragged the women out at gunpoint. The two had a harrowing ordeal behind them. One of the two has both Israeli and American citizenship.
Biden welcomes release
US President Joe Biden welcomed the release of the two Americans. “I am overjoyed that they will soon be reunited with their family, who have been tormented by fear,” Biden said in Washington on Friday.
US Secretary of State Blinken also expressed relief at the women’s release. At the same time, he emphasized that there are still ten other Americans who are missing in the crisis area. “We know that some of them are being held hostage by Hamas, along with an estimated 200 other hostages being held in Gaza.” Every single one of them must be released, Blinken demanded, and assured that the US government was working tirelessly to bring the remaining kidnapped Americans home.
According to US information on Thursday, at least 32 US citizens were killed in the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7th.