NEW YORK (1O1O WINS) -- Two American nationals -- a mother and daughter from the Chicago area -- kidnapped during Hamas' Oct. 7 terror attack in southern Israel have been released and are back in Israel, the Israeli government has confirmed.
Fox was first to report their identities as Judith Raanan and her daughter Natalie, 18, of Evanstan, Illinois. The pair went to Israel to visit Judith’s mother to celebrate her 85th birthday. Natalie had recently graduated from Deerfield High School.
The women were transferred to the Red Cross, according to Fox, and then exited Gaza across the Egypt border, before entering Israel.
The Israeli government said the women headed to an army based in southern Israel, before heading to meet with their family.
"I want them to come back alive because they're innocent and loving, and they didn't do anything, just innocent," Natalie's aunt Sigal Zamir told Chicago's ABC7 last week.
On Thursday the Israel Defense Forces said the number of missing has increased to 203.
"In response to Qatari efforts, Al-Qassam Brigades released two American citizens (a mother and her daughter) for humanitarian reasons, and to prove to the American people and the world that the claims made by Biden and his fascist administration are false and baseless," Al-Qassam Brigades spokesman Abu Obaida said in a statement, according to Fox.