Red Cross Says Two More Hostages Freed By Hamas
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
JERUSALEM/GAZA (Worthy News) – The International Committee of the Red Cross says the Palestinian militant group Hamas set free two more hostages taken captive from Israel in its worst attacks on record.
An Israeli government official identified the freed captives as Nurit Cooper and Yocheved Lifshitz.
Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by Israel, said it was releasing the two hostages, a pair of elderly women, “on humanitarian grounds.”
Egyptian officials later confirmed that the two hostages were released at Gaza’s Rafah border crossing.
It brings the total number of hostages released by Hamas to four. Two American-Israelis, mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan, were released Friday.
However, negotiations over releasing 50 other captives broke down over Hamas’ demands that Israel allow fuel deliveries into Gaza, according to officials familiar with the talks.
ABDUCTED FROM KIBBUTZ
Israel says that more than 200 hostages are being held by “Hamas terrorists” in Gaza after its surprise attack on Israel on October 7 killed some 1,400 people.
Cooper and Lifshitz were abducted from their homes in Kibbutz Nir Oz, a small Israeli community near the Gaza border that came under attack on Oct. 7.
“After being handed over to the IDF forces, they are making their way at this time to a medical center in Israel that was specially organized and prepared to receive them.
Their family members will be waiting for them there,” a spokesperson for Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office, on behalf of the Special Envoy for Abducted and Missing Persons, said.
Cooper, 79, was taken with her husband, 85-year-old Amiram Cooper, Israeli officials said. Lifshitz, 85, was also abducted along with her husband, 83-year-old Oded Lifshitz. The women’s husbands were not released.
Yocheved and Oded Lifshitz were peace activists and regularly transported patients from Gaza to hospitals across Israel for medical treatments, according to Israeli media.