On October 20, American mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan were released from Gaza by Hamas after being kidnapped during the October 7 attack on Israel. More than 230 people, including eight members of the Raanan family, are still being held hostage. A few days later, two more hostages, Nurit Cooper and Yocheved Lifshitz, ages 79 and 85, were also released.
According to PBS, Judith and Natalie Raanan were visiting their family in Kibbutz Nahal Oz near the border with Gaza. After their release, they refused to say anything about what happened to them while they were captive or how they were released. Their family has said that they are doing physically well, but the journey for them to heal mentally will be long and difficult.
According to CBS News, Nurit Cooper and Yocheved Lifshitz were also kidnapped with their husbands who haven’t been released yet. The two were peace activists and helped transport patients from Gaza to hospitals in Israel for better treatment.
After being released, Lifshitz’s daughter helped her tell her story in front of reporters in Tel Aviv. According to Lifshitz, she was kidnapped from her home and was taken on a motorcycle. She was then led to an underground tunnel system, which already contained around 25 people. Later, she got separated into a smaller room with 4 other people. They apparently were taken care of quite well and were treated by doctors regularly. “They treated us gently,״ said Lifshitz while being interviewed by reporters in Tel Aviv. In fact, Hamas released a video of the two women being released, and Lifshitz was seen shaking hands with one of the captors.
On October 7, the Hamas terrorists attacked Israel. In the attack, which turned into a war, more than 1,400 people were killed, and thousands more were injured. It is still unclear exactly where the more than 230 hostages are and how they are being treated.
Many family members of those who have been kidnapped stated they would demand a delay in the ground invasion into Gaza and that finding the kidnapped hostages should be Israel’s number one priority. According to various media reports, Israel’s ground invasion into Gaza has been delayed in order to negotiate the release of the hostages.
Closer to home, 0n Friday, October 27, in downtown Tenafly, a large table of over 200 empty seats was set and displayed in order to spread awareness and call for the release of the hostages. Each empty seat represented a captured person who would not be able to sit at the dinner table. On each of these seats is the name, picture, age, and nationality of a kidnapped person. Hundreds of people from Tenafly and surrounding towns attended the event. Tenafly High School graduate Edan Alexander (’23), who was kidnapped during the Hamas attack and is being held in Gaza, was one of the many honored during the event. The Israeli-American Council (IAC) has been displaying the table in many places in the United States and around the world.
