Hamas Releases Two More Hostages, US Demands Rest Be Freed

Hamas Releases Two More Hostages, US Demands Rest Be Freed

Two elderly Hamas hostages were airlifted to an Israeli hospital to be reunited with family Tuesday, as the United States demanded Palestinian militants release more than 200 other captives before Gaza ceasefire talks are considered.

Hamas militants stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, and killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians who were shot or burnt to death on the first day of the raid, according to Israeli officials.

The militants also took 222 people hostage, among them elderly people and young children, according to the Israeli authorities’ latest count. The hostages include dozens of dual nationals and foreigners.

More than 5,000 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed across the Gaza Strip in retaliatory Israeli bombardments, according to the latest toll from the Hamas health ministry in Gaza.

Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, and their octogenarian husbands were among the hostages seized on October 7.

Hamas released Cooper and Lifshitz on Monday citing “compelling humanitarian” reasons, after mediation by Qatar and Egypt.

Their release comes days after a US mother and daughter were freed.

An AFP journalist saw a military helicopter bringing Cooper and Lifshitz to a medical centre in Tel Aviv early on Tuesday.

The women were wheeled into the facility on a stretcher and wheelchair, as relatives gathered nearby.

Lifshitz recounted being bundled onto the back of a motorbike and stolen away to Gaza.

“They loaded me on a motorcycle sideways so I wouldn’t fall, with one terrorist holding me from the front and the other from behind,” she told Israeli media.

“They crossed the border fence into the Gaza Strip, and at first they held me in the town of Abesan, which is near Be’eri. After that, I don’t know where I was taken.”