Judith Tai Raanan and Natalie Shoshana Raanan, a mother and daughter from Chicago who were taken as hostages by Hamas during the October 7th raid on Israel have been released “following mediation with the Qatari government” reports National Review.
Natalie had just graduated from Deerfield High School in Chicago, and she and her mother were visiting Israeli family who lived in kibbutz Nahal Oz by the Gaza border for her grandmother’s 85th birthday.
Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, released a statement saying the two had been released for “humanitarian reasons, and to prove to the American people and the world that the claims made by (President Joe) Biden and his fascist administration are false and baseless.”
On Thursday, former NBC News foreign correspondent Martin Fletcher told MSNBC in a TV interview that he found out that “Natalie and Judith Raanan,” members of his wife’s family, had been abducted by Hamas. Some outlets wonder if the interview contributed to their release.
“They’re from Evanston, Illinois,” he said. “They’re Americans. They were visiting her grandmother for her 85th birthday. They were last seen, their hands tied, being dragged away by the Hamas terrorists. It’s personal. It’s real. Nobody is really confident that we’ll be able to get them back alive. Of course, everybody’s hoping the United States is doing everything they can” he said in his interview.
The first image of the two hostages have been released and the Israeli Defense Force confirmed they are now safe in Israel and on their way to be united with their families.
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