The nightmare ended this past morning for Nurit Cooper and Yocheved Lifshitz, the two hostages released a few hours ago by the terrorist organization Hamas. The women, aged 79 and 85, spent the night with their families and health personnel at the Ichilov hospital in Tel Aviv, where they were transferred once their captors handed them over.
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Both were kidnapped on October 7 by Hamas during its surprise attack on Israel, the beginning of an all-out war that has no signs of ending soon. They resided in the kibbutz of Nir Oz, in the south of the country, in the Negev desert, a population of less than 400 inhabitants. And she lived a peaceful life with her husband until that Saturday, the Palestinian militias devastated everything.
The freed hosts will be in Israel in the coming minutes.
From there they will be evacuated by medical helicopter to Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv. pic.twitter.com/h1OJa3TViG
— The Spectator Index (@Onlookerindex) October 23, 2023
The videos released in the first days of this month show how they engaged in shootings against everything and everyone. In the middle of that scuffle, several men entered their homes and dragged them away. They say that when that happened they didn’t know if they were going to kill them. Then, they realized that they were being kidnapped.
“They put me on a motorcycle”
Lifshitz has been the most explicit of the two elderly women released. Already surrounded by her family, she spoke to the Ynet media outlet, to which she confessed that she has no idea where they have been holding her these days. What she does remember vividly was the moment she was forcibly torn from her home. They put me on a motorcycle… with one terrorist holding me from the front and the other from behind so that I wouldn’t fall. “We crossed the border fence into the Strip and at first they held me in the town of Abasan al-Kabira, which is near Kibbutz Be’eri,” she explained. After that, there are no more memories, only suffering.
![Cooper and Lifshitz in two photographs provided by their families before the kidnapping.](https://s1.ppllstatics.com/rc/www/multimedia/2023/10/24/rehenes-liberadas-hamas-ancianas.jpg)
Cooper and Lifshitz in two photographs provided by their families before the kidnapping.
Agencies
![](https://s1.ppllstatics.com/rc/www/multimedia/2023/10/24/rehenes-liberadas-hamas-ancianas.jpg)
Both women were released last night for humanitarian reasons, according to Hamas. Apparently, the two have treatment for various pathologies, medications to which they have not had access during their captivity. For this reason, the first place they visited as soon as they were released was the hospital. In Tel Aviv they have been in charge of doing the first tests to see what their health status is. A nurse has told the media that they are apparently fine, but throughout this Tuesday they will undergo more exhaustive tests to see if they suffer any type of decompensation.
Another 220 hostages
Although I lack words to express my relief at knowing that they are safe, I remain focused on the release of my father and the 200 innocent people still held in Gaza,” explained Lifschitz’s daughter, Sharone, who has British nationality. With the two Israeli retirees, there are now four hostages that the Palestinian organization has released in recent days. The first were Judith and Natalie Raanan, ages 59 and 17. They were kidnapped in the Nahal Hoz kibbutz. They were there to visit family, where they had arrived from Illinois, United States, where they reside.
Yesterday, Israel specified the number of hostages held by Hamas since October 7. There are 220 people (now 220), a number that has fluctuated during these days due to the difficulty of identifying them and notifying their families, the Hebrew government explained in a statement. Netanyahu, who will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron during this day, has expressed his satisfaction with this fact.
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