The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas claimed on Monday it had released two women who were kidnapped during its Oct. 7 attack on Israeli territory and held since then in the Gaza Strip it controls.
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Hamas military wing spokesman Abou Obeida said in a statement that the two female hostages had been released “for urgent humanitarian reasons” thanks to the mediation of Qatar and Egypt. For its part, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) claimed to have facilitated the release of these two hostages.
This release came three days after the release of two American women and was not immediately confirmed by Israeli authorities.
Israeli media revealed the identities of the two women, Yocheved Lifshitz and Nourit Kuper, octogenarians from Kibbutz Nir Oz, who were taken hostage along with their husbands during the bloody Hamas attack on October 7.
The Egyptian press reported that two hostages released by Hamas arrived at the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip.
Kibbutz officials estimate about a quarter of the 400 residents have been killed, kidnapped or are missing.
The Islamist movement accused Israel of “violating eight times the agreements reached with the mediators to carry out the liberation operation.”
More than 220 Israeli, foreign or binational hostages have been identified by Israel. They were kidnapped and taken to Gaza by Hamas Islamists on October 7 in an unprecedented bloody attack, sparking a war in which Israel fired shells from the Gaza Strip to “wipe out” the Islamist movement.