Hamas released two American hostages, Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie Raanan, on Friday nearly two weeks after launching a deadly attack in Israel and abducting around 200 people.
The US citizens were handed over at the border with Gaza and are now in the care of the Israel Defense Forces, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Friday. They are currently on their way to an Israeli military base to be reunited with family, according to the office for Israel's prime minister.
The Raanans are from Chicago and had been visiting relatives in Nahal Oz, a farming community in southern Israel, when they were taken hostage on October 7, according to their family.
During the attack, Hamas militants killed more than 1,400 people, including civilians and soldiers, according to Israeli authorities. It was the most deadly attack by militants in Israel's 75-year history and revealed a staggering intelligence failure by the country's security forces.
Israel has since responded by enacting a blockade on Gaza and launching a barrage of airstrikes into the Palestinian enclave, sparking a humanitarian crisis. Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed at least 3,785 people, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
The hostages released on Friday were handed over to the Red Cross, according to a source familiar with negotiations for their release. CNN has reached out to the Red Cross.
They were released on "humanitarian grounds" because the mother is in poor health, the same source said. The release was the result of negotiations between Qatar and Hamas.
In a statement, Hamas spokesperson Abu Obaida said: "In response to Qatari efforts, Al-Qassam Brigades released two American citizens (a mother and her daughter) for humanitarian reasons, and to prove to the American people and the world that the claims made by Biden and his fascist administration are false and baseless."
Qatar confirmed the release of the two American hostages and said they will "continue dialogue with Israel and Hamas in hope of releasing all civilian hostages from every nationality," the spokesperson for Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Majid Al-Ansari said in a statement.
President Joe Biden said he is "overjoyed" that the two US citizens will "soon be reunited with their family," and called for their privacy. Biden reiterated that his administration has been "working around-the-clock" to free Americans held hostage by Hamas.
"Jill and I have been holding close in our hearts all the families of unaccounted for Americans," he said. "And, as I told those families when I spoke with them last week—we will not stop until we get their loved ones home. As President, I have no higher priority than the safety of Americans held hostage around the world."
The release of the two American hostages is "hopefully the start of more to come," a diplomatic source with knowledge of the arrangements told CNN. The source indicated no exchanges were part of their release.
The news came after US President Joe Biden, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak flocked to Israel in recent days, amid growing pressure on world leaders to secure the release of the hostages.
A number of foreign nationals were among those kidnapped by Hamas, including people from the US, Mexico, Brazil and Thailand.
Information about the status, location and identity of all the hostages remains scarce. Some have been identified by families who recognize them from online videos, sparking desperate pleads for their return.
Representatives of the hostages have welcomed the release of the two Americans.
"The families' headquarters welcomes the release of hostages from Hamas captivity," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement to CNN.
"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."
Humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens
An Israeli blockade of food, water, fuel and electricity is "going to kill many, many people" in Gaza, a senior aid official warned Friday, as Israel's siege and bombardment of the enclave approached the two-week mark.
Relentless airstrikes have killed at least 3,785 Palestinians, including 1,524 children, 1,000 women and 120 elderly people, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Almost 12,500 have been injured and there are growing fears that millions of Palestinians could be permanently displaced.
A spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said Friday that seven hospitals and 21 primary care health centers had been rendered "out of service," and 64 medical staff have been killed, as Israel continues its airstrikes on Gaza.
"It is absolutely life or death at this point," Avril Benoit, executive director for Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), told CNN.
Amnesty International has said Israel's "collective punishment" of Palestinian civilians for Hamas' attack amounts to a war crime.
Meanwhile, around 200 trucks carrying vital aid destined for Gaza remain stuck in Egypt, despite a frantic diplomatic effort to open the Rafah crossing. Negotiations continued through Thursday as workers filled dangerous road craters from Israeli bombing to allow up to 20 trucks to pass in an initial delivery.
Deputy United Nations spokesperson Farhan Haq said Friday that the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wants sustained delivery operations to Gaza.
Haq said the Secretary-General "wants to make sure that UNRWA, the relief and works agency, has fuel on its side so it can distribute humanitarian aid to the population."
"It is no use dropping off aid on the other side and then leaving it there because the trucks simply do not have enough fuel on that side to give it to the people who need it," he added.
Guterres traveled to the Rafah crossing on Friday as part of the UN's efforts to help aid reach Gaza.
"Behind these walls, we have two million people that are suffering enormously. So, these trucks are not just trucks, they are a lifeline. They are the difference between life and death," Guterres said at a press conference held on the Egyptian side of the border.
A CNN team on the ground attended the press conference and witnessed a protest by several hundred demonstrators break out after Guterres finished his speech. Guterres was then forced to leave the Rafah gate earlier than planned as the protest began to get out of control.
"There is no life now... It's just trying to survive. That's it," a Palestinian man living in Gaza, who wished to remain anonymous, told CNN.
The population of southern Gaza has swelled in recent days after the Israeli military told around 1 million residents to leave northern Gaza ahead of the expected Israeli ground incursion.
This story is developing and being updated.
