Released by Hamas, American mother, daughter reunited with family in Israel

investing.com:

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Eric Cox

GAZA/EVANSTON, Illinois (Reuters) -Two newly freed American hostages, a Chicago-area woman and her teenage daughter, were reunited with family inside Israel on Friday as relatives celebrated back home in Illinois, nearly two weeks after Hamas gunmen abducted them and dozens of others near Gaza.

Judith Tai Raanan, 59, and her daughter Natalie, 17, were handed over to Israeli forces at the Gaza Strip border on Friday, becoming the first captives whose release by Hamas has been confirmed by both sides since the latest round of Arab-Israeli bloodshed erupted.

The release was announced by Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, and confirmed a short time later in a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli leader said the mother and daughter, from the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, were «on their way to a meeting point at a military base in the center of the country, where their family members are waiting for them.»

Reached by phone in Bannockburn, Illinois, outside Chicago, Uri Raanan, the teenager's father, said he spoke with his daughter by phone. «She sounds very, very good, very happy — and she looks good.»

Natalie Raanan's uncle, Avraham Zamir, said the family was joyful the pair had been safely released. «But there are still many families whose loved ones are still being held hostage, and we will continue our efforts for their release,» he said from his home in Illinois.

At a candle lighting for the start of the Jewish sabbath at sundown on Friday, Rabbi Meir Hecht, co-director of the Chabad House in Evanston where Judith Raanan has worshiped for more than 10 years, said the Orthodox Jewish