Hamas Frees Two More Hostages, Cites ‘Compelling Humanitarian’ Reasons for Release – News18

Terrorist group Hamas on Monday said they freed two more hostages who were abducted from Israel on October 7. The Palestinian Islamist terrorist group freed Yocheved Lifshitz and Nurit Cooper, two elderly women, citing “compelling humanitarian” reasons.

It said that Qatar and Egypt were part of the mediation process.

A report by news agency AFP said that their husbands were still in captivity along with over 200 hostages still held by Hamas inside Gaza Strip.

Four women have now been freed in three days. American mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan were freed on Friday, with the terrorists citing humanitarian reasons and efforts by Qatar and Egypt.

“I can confirm that my mother Yochi (Yocheved) Lifshitz was one of two hostages released to the Red Cross this evening,” her daughter Sharone Lifschitz said in a statement.

The women released on Monday were Israelis, the news agency said in the report. The women were transported out of Gaza with assistance from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

They were taken to the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. “We hope they will soon be back with their loved ones,” the ICRC said on X, formerly Twitter.

These two women lived at the Nir Oz kibbutz and are aged 85 and 79, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, and also thanked the Red Cross for helping them return to Israel.

Israel on Monday increased the number of confirmed hostages captured by Hamas and taken to Gaza to 222 people during the October 7 attacks when Hamas gunmen crossed the border and attacked kibbutz communities, towns and military bases in southern Israel.

Israeli officials say Hamas terrorists killed 1,400 people in the nation’s worst-ever attack. Israel hit back with a blistering bombing campaign which Gaza’s Hamas-run health authority says has now killed more than 5,000 people.

The hostages — among them babies, children, pregnant women, soldiers and many foreign nationals — have become a major issue for the Israeli government as it justifies its bombardment of “Hamas targets” in Gaza. But the spiralling Palestinian death toll has drawn international concern.