Hamas frees two elderly Israeli women hostages for 'compelling humanitarian' reasons

Gaza's Hamas rulers said Monday that they had freed two more women abducted from Israel during the October 7 attacks.

The Palestinian group's military wing said the two elderly women, identified as Yocheved Lifshitz and Nurit Cooper, had been freed for "compelling humanitarian" reasons following mediation by Qatar and Egypt.

Their husbands were still in captivity, among more than 200 hostages still held by Hamas, Israeli media said.

Four women have now been freed in three days. A source close to the mediators confirmed the release and said the women were Israelis. Hamas said that it had tried to free the two elderly women on Friday but Israel had refused.

Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan said that it did not ask for anything in return for the release of the women and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had relented in the face of popular pressure in Israel.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had also helped with the case and the transportation of the women out of Gaza.

The pair were taken to the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, according to Israeli media.

"We hope they will soon be back with their loved ones," the ICRC said on X, formerly Twitter.

📢 We facilitated the release of 2 more hostages, transporting them out of #Gaza this evening.

Our role as a neutral intermediary makes this work possible & we are ready to facilitate any future release.

We hope that they will soon be back with their loved ones.

— ICRC (@ICRC) October 23, 2023

Netanyahu's office confirmed the two women's identities, aged 85 and 79, saying they lived at the Nir Oz kibbutz in southern Israel.

"They are currently heading toward a medical centre in Israel specially prepared for their arrival," his office said, thanking the Red Cross for its help in freeing the women.

"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.

Images on Egyptian television station Alqahera News showed the two women getting into ambulances, one with the help of paramedics.

Each woman was then shown lying on a stretcher in separate ambulances, surrounded by first-aiders and ICRC personnel.

تكليلا للجهود المصرية.. الإفراج عن سيدتين محتجزتين في قطاع غزة ووصولهما إلى #معبر_رفح#القاهرة_الإخبارية #تضامنا_مع_فلسطين #من_غزة_هنا_القاهرة #فلسطين pic.twitter.com/Emjs7O7KJf

— AlQahera News (@Alqaheranewstv) October 23, 2023

American mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan were freed on Friday, with Hamas also citing humanitarian reasons and efforts by Qatar and Egypt.

Israel on Monday increased the number of confirmed hostages to 222 people seized when Hamas militants crossed the border and attacked towns and military bases in southern Israel.

Israeli officials say they killed 1,400 people.

Israel hit back with a ferocious and indiscriminate bombing campaign which has now killed more than 5,000 people, 2,000 of them children. Hundreds of Palestinians are being killed in airstrikes every day.

The hostages - among them soldiers and many foreign nationals - have become a major issue for the Israeli government as it justifies its bombardment of "Hamas targets" in Gaza.

The Israeli attacks have hit hospitals, residential buildings, churches, and places where civilians were sheltering in the Gaza Strip. The rapidly spiralling Palestinian death toll has drawn international concern.

The Israeli army claimed that several ground raids into Gaza in recent days have recovered the bodies that were snatched from inside Israel then later dumped.

Military spokesman Daniel Hagari on Monday said infantry and tank raids into Gaza during the night had sought to "locate and search for any information available about the hostages".

When asked later about reports that more hostages could be released, Hagari refused to comment, saying only: "We are doing all that we can to free all hostages no matter the nationality."