As the six-day truce with Israel draws to a close, Hamas releases two Israeli-Russian hostages in an outreach to Putin.
On Wednesday, the last day of a brief cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the militant group freed two kidnapped Israeli women with Russian ties
Hamas releases two Israeli-Russian hostages in an outreach to Putin. Photo Courtesy
As the six-day truce with Israel draws to a close, Hamas releases two Israeli-Russian hostages in an outreach to Putin.
On Wednesday, the last day of a brief cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the militant group freed two kidnapped Israeli women with Russian ties. As negotiations looked into extending the truce for several days, Hamas was also getting ready to release at least ten additional captives.
Two captives were turned over by Hamas to the Red Cross and were returning to Israel, according to IDF spokesman Avichay Adraee, who made this announcement on X.
The two ladies, Yelenia Trupanob and Irena Tati are Russian citizens, according to Haaretz. CNN reports that they emigrated to Israel from Russia. The IDF, however, just referred to them as Israelis without mentioning their citizenship.
Although the Israeli Prime Minister’s office tweeted that the two were released as part of Thursday’s scheduled hostage releases, according to a Hamas spokesman, the ladies were freed independently from the group’s agreement with Israel over hostage releases as a courtesy to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been criticizing Israel’s military operation in the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Hamas.
As part of the prolonged truce arrangement, Hamas is anticipated to release ten more hostages on Wednesday, and Israel is anticipated to release Palestinian inmates.
Hamas has freed hundreds of Israeli civilians who were detained in Gaza after the organization’s lethal onslaught on southern Israel on October 7 during the six-day cease-fire. In agreements unrelated to the one with Israel, the organization has also released a few detained individuals of other nationalities. Apart from the fifty hostages that were freed during the first four days, there were also releases of 19 Thai hostages, one Filipino hostage, and one Russian hostage.
whether Wednesday’s release of any Americans occurs. One American citizen may be among the hostages released today, according to U.S. officials and diplomats who spoke with NBC News. There are still thought to be nine Americans held captive by Hamas.
According to reports, talks are taking place to keep the hostages being released and to prolong the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. A representative for the government of Qatar, which has aided in mediating the negotiations, told CNN that the nation is hopeful the agreement will be extended.
