The Prime Minister’s Office announced in the name of the Captives and Missing Envoy that the Envoy, Brig.-Gen. (Sunday) met with the Red Cross delegation and thanked them for freeing the hostages.
The Envoy for Captives and Missing thanked a Red Cross delegation for its part in securing the release of the two hostages on Shabbat night and their role as a humanitarian and neutral body.
The al-Qassam battalions, Hamas’ military wing, released the two captives Yehudit Raanan (59) and her daughter Natalie (18) on Friday. Documentation released by the battalions shows the two being delivered to the Red Cross, which took them to Egypt – and from there, to Israel. The two, American-Israeli citizens, came to Israel from Chicago in order to return to the country and live there, and were kidnapped to Gaza during the massacre in Kibbutz Nachal Oz.
Captives and Missing Envoy Gal Hirsch, together with the IDF and defense forces, received them at the Gaza Strip border – continuing from there to a military base in the center, where their families awaited. The statement read: “The government, the IDF, and the whole defense establishment will continue to work with its best capabilities and all efforts to locate all the missing and return all the kidnapped home.”
The two were kidnapped to the Strip during the massacre, and Hamas spokesman Abu Obayda said of their release that it was “for humanitarian reasons, and subsequent to Qatari efforts.”
A few days ago, Red Cross representatives received a report describing immediate danger to the lives of some of the captives and missing and their inhuman suffering. The physical state of a significant number of the captives and missing is serious.
The report, submitted to representatives of the Red Cross in Israel who visited the Families Forum, reveals the dimensions of the horror: people with Parkinson’s and MS, people with special needs, infants and elderly in severe conditions, and time is running out. The kidnapped are suffering intolerable torture and immediate life-threatening danger due to the lack of access to medical treatment.
Now, after the release of the two captives, Gal Hirsch is continuing his efforts to free all the hostages held by Hamas battalions. As part of these efforts, he met with a Red Cross delegation, thanked them for freeing the captives and worked to influence them to add international pressure to free the rest of the hostages.
A great deal of anger was registered on social media after the Israeli government approved the introduction of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip even before Red Cross representatives visited the captives.
