Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Hamas kidnapped the mother and her daughter while they were staying in the Nahal Oz residential community.
Media reports in the United States stated that they were from Evanston, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois.
According to a statement issued by the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, the release of the two detainees was for “humanitarian reasons.”
Hamas says it took about 200 hostages during the major attack it launched on October 7 from the Gaza Strip on towns and military bases in southern Israel.
The movement also says that other armed groups in the Strip are holding 50 others, and stated that more than 20 detainees were killed in Israeli air strikes, but did not provide any other details.
On Friday, US President Joe Biden expressed his “overwhelming happiness” after Hamas released the two American hostages. He said in a statement, “Today, we secured the release of two American women who were held hostage by Hamas during the horrific terrorist attack against Israel on October 7.”
He added that they “suffered a terrible ordeal during the past 14 days, and I feel overjoyed that they will soon be reunited with their family.”
The US President pledged to continue working to release other Americans detained by Hamas, and he spoke to the families of a number of them last week.
In this context, Biden said, “We will not stop until we bring their loved ones home. As president, I have no higher priority than the safety of Americans being held hostage around the world.”
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