Two women with Russian citizenship who were held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip for more than a month have been released and have arrived in Egypt on Wednesday.
The two women – identified by the office of Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu as Yelena Trupanov, 50, and 73-year-old Irena Tati – were handed over earlier by Hamas to the International Committee of the Red Cross “after the efforts of the Russian president”, the Palestinian group said in a statement.
The women were among the more than 200 hostages, mostly Israelis, who were held hostage by Hamas during on October 7, which sparked a seven-week war that killed more than 15,000 Palestinians.
According to reports, the women crossed the Rafah border crossing into Egypt, where they were received by Russian embassy officials and medical staff. They were then transferred to a hospital in Cairo for a check-up before flying back to Russia.
The release of the two women came as a surprise, as Hamas had not announced their names or nationalities before. It was not clear why Hamas decided to free them or what role the Russian president played in securing their release. Hamas said it was still holding more than 150 hostages, including 85 Israelis, and demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and the lifting of the Israeli blockade on Gaza as conditions for their release.
Israel has so far released 39 Palestinian prisoners, including 24 women and 15 teenagers, as part of a four-day ceasefire that began on Friday and was extended for another two days on Tuesday. More than 1.5 million people have been displaced by the Israeli bombardment in Gaza.
Netanyahu thanked Egypt for its assistance and the Red Cross for the “important role” it played in the release of the hostages. He also vowed to continue Israel’s campaign to destroy Hamas and bring back all the hostages. “We are committed to returning all the hostages. This is one of the aims of the war and we are committed to achieving all the aims of the war,” he said.
The war between Israel and Hamas has been the deadliest and most destructive in the history of the conflict, which dates back to 1948. The international community has called for an end to the violence and a lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and respect for human rights and international law.
