Late on Monday, the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel verified the liberation of two additional hostages—elderly Israeli females aged 85 and 79—by the Islamist Hamas terrorists.
Israeli officials stated that the women have been transferred to the Israeli armed forces and are en route to a medical facility in Israel.
Previously, media outlets in Egypt had announced that “Two women who were held in Gaza arrived at the Rafah crossing,” while Hamas disclosed that the hostages were set free due to “compelling humanitarian reasons” and via the intercession of Egypt and Qatar.
The released hostages, Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, and Nurit Cooper, 79, were escorted from Gaza through the Rafah terminal into Egyptian territory, where ambulances awaited them, as revealed by video footage broadcasted on Egyptian TV.
Both couples were abducted from their residences in Kibbutz Nir Oz, adjacent to the Gaza frontier, amid a Hamas incursion into southern Israel on October 7. The husbands of the women remain in captivity.
Daniel Lifshitz, the grandson of Yocheved Lifshitz, communicated to Reuters that his grandmother has been a lifelong advocate for peace. Alongside her spouse, she has consistently aided ailing Palestinians from Gaza in obtaining medical care in Israeli healthcare centers.
“They are human rights activists, peace activists for all their life”, Daniel Lifshitz conveyed to Reuters in Tel Aviv prior to the confirmation of his grandmother’s release. “For more than a decade, they took … sick Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, not from the West Bank, from the Gaza Strip every week from the Erez border to the hospitals in Israel to get treatment for their disease, for cancer, for anything”.
Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the US State Department, declared on Monday that the US is gratified by Hamas’ decision to release the two Israeli females.
Miller articulated during an MSNBC interview that they are very happy with the release of these two Israeli hostages, in addition to the release of American women on Friday.
On the night of October 20, Hamas set free the first two hostages abducted in the October 7 assault on Israel—Israeli-Americans Judith Tai Raanan and Natalie Shoshana Raanan. The mother-daughter duo, who reside in Evanston, Illinois, were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nahal Oz during a family visit. Natalie, 17, completed her high school education this year.
Israel clarified on Monday that the count of individuals held hostage by Hamas in Gaza has escalated to 222. All were apprehended on October 7, amid a Hamas terror attack targeting kibbutzim, municipalities, and military installations in southern Israel.
