A mother and daughter from Chicago who were seized during the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October and held hostage in Gaza have been released after Qatar brokered negotiations with the militant group.
Natalie Raanan, 17, and her mother, Judith, 59, were transferred through the Rafah crossing into Egypt, where they were met by Israeli security forces, the office of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a statement late on Friday.
They were then taken to an Israeli military base to be reunited with their relatives.
The two women, who also hold Israeli citizenship, were at the Nahal Oz kibbutz, less than 2km from Gaza, when Hamas militants broke through a hi-tech border fence on 7 October, slaughtered 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped more than 200 others to hold hostage in Gaza.
They had travelled to Israel for the holiday season and to celebrate a relative’s 85th birthday, their rabbi, Meir Hecht, said after they were seized.
Natalie’s father Uri told the AP that he spoke to his daughter by telephone late on Friday. “She’s doing good. She’s doing very good,” he said. “I’m in tears, and I feel very, very good.”
A Hamas spokesperson, Abu Ubaida, said the hostages were released in response to Qatari mediation efforts, “for humanitarian reasons, and to prove to the American people and the world that the claims made by [President Joe] Biden and his fascist administration are false and baseless”, the Associated Press reported.
In a statement, Biden said he was “overjoyed” that the two would soon be back with their family, and pledged to continue his efforts to secure the release of additional hostages.
“Jill and I have been holding close in our hearts all the families of unaccounted-for Americans. And, as I told those families when I spoke with them last week, we will not stop until we get their loved ones home,” he said.
Qatar said it would continue its dialogue with Israel and Hamas in hopes of winning the release of all hostages “with the ultimate aim of de-escalating the current crisis and restoring peace”.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which also contributed to the release, called for all hostages to be freed and offered to facilitate any future releases.
Relatives have described Natalie as a fashion-mad teenager who had just graduated from high school before the trip and was looking forward to getting a first tattoo. She was released days before her 18th birthday.
“She’s quite addicted to her phone, madly in love with fashion,” her brother Ben told ABC7 Chicago. “She loves wearing these, like, kind of ridiculous nails that are like 6in long, which you can’t open doors with, but she thinks they look great.”
The family had spoken extensively to Biden, Ben Raanan told a local TV channel. The US president, on a trip to Israel earlier this week, had said securing the release of US hostages was his top priority.
Thirteen Americans were confirmed to be among the 203 people Israel said had been taken hostage, with 11 now thought to remain. It was not immediately clear why the Raanans were the first hostages released, or whether other releases might follow.
On Monday Hamas had described non-Israelis who had been kidnapped as “guests” and said it would free them “when circumstances on the ground allow”.
The UK, Thailand, Argentina, Germany, France and Portugal have also said their citizens have been held hostage in Gaza. British diplomats have reportedly asked Qatar for help negotiating for the release of kidnapped citizens.
Hamas has previously said more than 20 hostages were killed in airstrikes but has not provided more details or information.
The release came amid growing anticipation of an Israel ground offensive in the Gaza strip. Netanyahu has prioritized destroying Hamas over freeing hostages, saying the scale of the attack makes it a question of national survival.
That overturns a longstanding national commitment to ensuring “no one is left behind”, which in 2011 led to Israel swapping more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners to win the release of one Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was held for five years.
That position has divided hostages’ families, with some protesting daily in Tel Aviv. It has also become a lightning rod for criticism of Netanyahu among a public already furious about the security failures that led to the massacres and mass hostage taking.
The release of two hostages, even if they are dual American-Israeli citizens, is likely to intensify demands for his government to do more to rescue missing Israelis. He may also face diplomatic pressure from Washington or other allies who are now hoping to broker further releases.
Relatives of other captives welcomed the release of the Raanans and appealed for the others to be freed.
“We call on world leaders and the international community to exert their full power in order to act for the release of all the hostages and missing,’’ they said in a statement.
