Hamas releases two American hostages

In a statement released on October 20, the Hamas Islamist movement said that in response to Qatar's efforts, it had released two American hostages for "humanitarian reasons."

This is the first time Hamas has released hostages since the conflict broke out nearly two weeks ago.

After releasing the hostages, Hamas also announced that it was working with representatives of Qatar and Egypt to release the civilian hostages.

The Israeli Prime Minister's Office confirmed that Hamas released two hostages, Judith Raanan and Natalie Raanan, later that evening.

The Prime Minister's Office statement added that Israel received two hostages at the Gaza border and took them to a military base to meet their families.

In a statement, US President Joe Biden also affirmed that the US government had secured the release of two American hostages, and expressed gratitude to the Qatari and Israeli governments for their coordination and implementation of this work.

The health status of mother and daughter Judith Raanan and Natalie Raanan is currently unknown.

However, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross Mirjana Spoljaric said that Hamas' release of these two men brought hope to the families of other hostages held in the Gaza Strip.

Israel-Hamas tensions erupted on October 7 with retaliatory attacks between the two sides and then followed by tensions on the border between Israel and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon.

After 14 days of conflict, a total of more than 5,000 people were killed on both sides and many fell into an urgent humanitarian crisis.

The Israeli military (IDF) announced on October 20 that most of the approximately 200 hostages kidnapped by Hamas and taken to the Gaza Strip are still alive.

According to the IDF, more than 20 of the hostages were children and about 10-20 were people over 60 years old.

In addition, there are about 100-200 people who are considered missing since the conflict broke out.