JERUSALEM — Two more hostages, identified as Nurit Yitzhak and Yocheved Lifshitz, have been released by Hamas, multiple sources confirmed to NBC News.
In a statement on Telegram, the military wing of Hamas said it had decided to release the two women for “compelling humanitarian” reasons.
NBC News has not confirmed images of the hostages being released, but video broadcast on Egyptian state television showed the women on stretchers inside ambulances, speaking with people who appeared to be health workers. The ambulances appeared to be near the Rafah crossing, on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it had “facilitated” the release of the two captives and transported them out of Gaza on Monday night local time.
“We hope that they will soon be back with their loved ones,” the humanitarian organization said in a statement posted on social media.
The announcement comes three days after the release of two Americans who had been held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip — Judith Raanan and her teenage daughter, Natalie. They are related to former Israel-based NBC News correspondent Martin Fletcher.
At least 212 people were taken hostage by Hamas after terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing more than 1,000 people, according to Israel Defense Forces spokesman Daniel Hagari.
Israel and Hamas have been at war since, and Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes in Gaza had killed at least 5,087 people as of Monday morning, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Hamas has said it does not have custody of all the hostages and that some were taken captive by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, another militant group based in Gaza.
Israel has demanded the release of everyone who was kidnapped on Oct. 7; Hamas has said it will free its captives only when Israeli airstrikes in Gaza come to a halt. The hostage crisis has roiled Israel and stunned people around the world.
The rapidly deteriorating conditions in Gaza have stoked international concerns about a major humanitarian crisis, with many groups accusing Israel of breaching international law by exercising collective punishment.
In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised the release of the Raanans but appeared to express skepticism over whether Hamas would actually release more hostages.
“We’re hopeful that more [will be] released,” Blinken said. “But the bottom line is this: They need to be released. Each and every one of them. Now. Unconditionally.”
President Joe Biden echoed those comments in an exchange with a reporter Monday morning. When asked whether he would like to see a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas, the president replied: “We should have those hostages released, then we can talk.”
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