KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas on Friday released an American woman and her teenage daughter who had been held hostage in Gaza, Israel said. This was the first such release among the approximately 200 people the militant group kidnapped from Israel in October. 7 rampage.
Judith Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter Natalie were out of the Gaza Strip and in the hands of the Israeli military, an army spokesman said. Hamas said it released them on humanitarian grounds in an agreement with the Qatari government.
The release comes amid growing expectations of a ground offensive that Israel says is aimed at rooting out Hamas militants who rule Gaza. Israel said Friday that it does not plan to maintain long-term control of the tiny territory, home to about 2.3 million people.
As the Israeli military punished Gaza with airstrikes, authorities came closer to delivering aid from Egypt to desperate families and hospitals. Fighting between Israel and militants also broke out in neighboring Lebanon, prompting evacuations of Lebanese and Israeli border towns as fears of the conflict spreading grew.
Judith and Natalie Ranaan traveled to Israel from their home in suburban Chicago to celebrate Jewish holidays, the family said. They were at the Nahal Oz kibbutz near Gaza on Oct. 7 when Hamas and other militants stormed into southern Israeli towns, killing hundreds and kidnapping 203 others.
The family has not heard from them since the attack and later learned from U.S. and Israeli officials that they were being held in Gaza, said Natalie’s brother Ben.
“I am overjoyed that they will soon be reunited with their fear-stricken family,” said US President Joe Biden, who spoke to the two freed hostages and their relatives. The International Committee of the Red Cross, which transported the freed Americans from Gaza to Israel, said their release was “a glimmer of hope.”
Relatives of other prisoners welcomed the release and called for more people to be released.
“We call on world leaders and the international community to use their full power to advocate for the release of all hostages and missing persons,” the statement said.
Hamas said in a statement that it was working with mediators to “complete the case” of the hostages if the security situation permitted. The group added that it was committed to mediation efforts by Egypt, Qatar and other countries.
Qatar said it would continue its dialogue with Israel and Hamas in the hope of achieving the release of all hostages “with the ultimate goal of de-escalating the current crisis and restoring peace.”
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said Israel continued to work to return hostages and find the missing and that its goals had not changed. “We continue the war against Hamas and are ready for the next phase of the war,” he said.
A possible Israeli ground attack is likely to lead to a dramatic escalation in casualties on both sides in urban fighting. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed in the war – most of them civilians killed during the Hamas invasion.
More than 4,100 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry. This includes the controversial number of people who died in a hospital explosion earlier this week.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke to lawmakers about Israel’s long-term plans for Gaza, laying out a three-stage plan that suggested Israel had no intention of reoccupying the territory it left in 2005.
First, Israeli airstrikes and “maneuvers” – a presumed reference to a ground attack – would be aimed at eradicating Hamas. Next comes a lower intensity battle to defeat the remaining pockets of resistance. And finally, a new “security regime” will be created in Gaza and “Israel’s responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip will be abolished,” Gallant said.
Gallant did not say who Israel would likely rule Gaza if Hamas were toppled or what the new security regime would entail.
Israel occupied Gaza from 1967 to 2005, when it tore up settlements and withdrew soldiers. Two years later, Hamas took power. Some Israelis blame the withdrawal from Gaza for the sporadic violence that has continued since then.
The humanitarian crisis facing civilians in the Gaza Strip has worsened by the day since Israel stopped the delivery of aid two weeks ago, causing fuel, food, water and medicine to run out. Two days after Israel announced an agreement allowing Egypt to send aid, the border remained closed on Friday as Egypt repaired the Rafah crossing damaged by Israeli attacks.
Over a million people have been displaced in Gaza. Many followed Israel’s orders to evacuate the northern part of the isolated enclave on the Mediterranean coast. But Israel has continued to bomb areas in the southern Gaza Strip where Palestinians had been told to seek safety. Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described areas in the south as “safe zones” earlier this week, Israeli military spokesman Nir Dinar said on Friday: “There are no safe zones.”
Some Palestinians who fled the north appeared to be returning because of the bombings and difficult living conditions in the south, said Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the U.N. human rights office.
Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals rationed their dwindling resources.
Generators at Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest hospital, were operating at the lowest level to save fuel while providing power to vital departments such as the intensive care unit, said hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia. Others worked in the dark.
“I don’t know how long (the fuel) will last. Every day we assess the situation,” he said.
The lack of medical supplies and water made it difficult to treat the many victims of Israeli attacks, he said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it had received a threat from the Israeli military to bomb Al-Quds Hospital. It said Israel had called for the immediate evacuation of the Gaza City hospital, which is home to more than 400 patients and thousands of displaced civilians who sought refuge at the site.
Work continued on Friday to repair the road at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, the only border crossing with the Gaza Strip not controlled by Israel. Trucks unloaded gravel and bulldozers and other equipment were used to fill large craters.
But there still seemed to be differences in how assistance was provided. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres worked with Egypt, Israel, the United States and others to resolve the “impasse” that prevented the trucks from entering, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters on Friday.
Guterres wants to ensure that a “significant” number of trucks cross the border daily, that inspection of truckloads is “accelerated” and that UN authorities have fuel to distribute supplies within the Gaza Strip.
More than 200 trucks and about 3,000 tons of relief supplies were stationed near the crossing. Israel said the supplies could only go to civilians and that it would “thwart” any diversions by Hamas. It was unclear whether fuel for the hospital generators was allowed to enter.
Israel has evacuated its own communities near Gaza and Lebanon and placed residents in hotels elsewhere in the country. The Defense Ministry on Friday announced evacuation plans for Kiryat Shmona, a town of more than 20,000 people near the Lebanese border. According to the Israel Health Service, three Israelis, including a five-year-old girl, were injured in a rocket attack there on Thursday.
The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has a huge arsenal of long-range missiles, has fought almost daily firefights with Israel along the border and suggested it could join the war if Israel tries to destroy Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.
The violence in Gaza has also sparked protests across the region, including in US-allied Arab countries
Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy airstrikes in Khan Younis, a town in the territory’s south, and ambulances carrying men, women and children streamed into the local Nasser hospital.
Late Thursday, an Israeli airstrike hit a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City that was housing displaced Palestinians. The Gaza Health Ministry said 16 Palestinian Christians were killed. The military said it attacked a Hamas command center nearby, damaging a church wall.
Palestinian militants have launched relentless rocket attacks on Israel since October 7, according to Israel – more than 6,900 since October 7 – and tensions have increased in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Israel has targeted militants in raids across occupied territory. On Friday, two Palestinian teenagers were killed in clashes in the West Bank, where more than 80 Palestinians have been killed in the past two weeks.
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Krauss reported from Jerusalem and Kullab from Baghdad. Associated Press journalists Amy Teibel, Ravi Nessman, Julia Frankel and Isabel Debre in Jerusalem; Samy Magdy and Jack Jeffery in Cairo; Matthew Lee in Washington and Ashraf Sweilam in el-Arish, Egypt, contributed to this report.