They will find their loved ones. The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas claimed this Monday to have released two women kidnapped during its attack on Israeli territory on October 7 and detained since in the Gaza Strip which it controls.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s office gave the identities of the two women, of Israeli nationality and from Kibbutz Nir Oz: Yocheved Lifschitz, 85, and Nourit Kuper, 79, taken hostage with their husbands during the bloody attack of Hamas. Their husbands are still held in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office said.
“After being handed over to Israeli forces, they are currently heading to a medical center in Israel specially prepared to receive them,” a statement said. “Their family members will be waiting for them there,” adds the Prime Minister’s office, which thanked Egypt and the Red Cross for their roles in the release of the hostages.
Failed negotiations to free around fifty hostages
The Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv confirmed that it would receive the two women, transported in a military helicopter, for medical examinations. “Although I lack words to express my relief that she is now safe, I remain focused on the release of my father and the approximately 200 innocent people still held hostage in Gaza,” Sharone Lifschitz, the daughter of Yocheved, of British nationality.
The spokesperson for Hamas’s military wing, Abou Obeida, said in a statement that the two female hostages had been released “for pressing humanitarian reasons” thanks to mediation from Qatar and Egypt. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for its part claimed to have facilitated the release of these two hostages.
This release, which comes three days after that of two American women, was not immediately confirmed by the Israeli authorities. Negotiations on the possible release of a group of 50 hostages have failed, with Hamas demanding that Israel authorize fuel deliveries to Gaza, which the Jewish state rejects until all the hostages have been released, according to officials familiar with the talks, reports the Wall Street Journal.
More than 220 hostages identified
Israeli media gave the identities of the two women, octogenarians from Kibbutz Nir Oz, Yocheved Lifshitz and Nourit Kuper, taken hostage with their husbands during the bloody Hamas attack on October 7.
The Egyptian press reported that two hostages released by Hamas were arriving at the Rafah crossing in the south of the Gaza Strip. According to estimates by kibbutz officials, about a quarter of its 400 residents have been killed, kidnapped or are missing.
The Islamist movement accused Israel of having “violated on eight occasions the arrangements governing the liberation operation which had been agreed with the mediators for it to be carried out”.
More than 220 Israeli, foreign or binational hostages have been identified by Israel. They were kidnapped and taken to Gaza by Hamas Islamists in an unprecedented bloody attack on October 7, which sparked a war, with Israel shelling from the Gaza Strip to “annihilate” the Islamist movement.