American mother and daughter taken hostage by Hamas are released as humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens

By Alex Marquardt, Kaitlan Collins, Oren Liebermann, Michael Conte, Sana Noor Haq and Eva Rothenberg, CNN
9 minute read
Updated 7:21 PM EDT, Fri October 20, 2023
American hostages Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter Natalie Raanan are seen following their release by Hamas on Friday, October 20, 2023.
American hostages Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter Natalie Raanan are seen following their release by Hamas on Friday, October 20, 2023.
Handout/Israeli Government
CNN
—
Hamas released two American hostages, Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie Raanan, on Friday nearly two weeks after launching a deadly attack in Israel and abducting around 200 people.

The US citizens were handed over at the border with Gaza and are now in the care of the Israel Defense Forces, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Friday. They are currently on their way to an Israeli military base to be reunited with family, according to the office for Israel's prime minister.

The Raanans are from Chicago and had been visiting relatives in Nahal Oz, a farming community in southern Israel, when they were taken hostage on October 7, according to their family.

Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter Natalie Raanan.
Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter Natalie Raanan.
Courtesy Saray Cohen
During the attack, Hamas militants killed more than 1,400 people, including civilians and soldiers, according to Israeli authorities. It was the most deadly attack by militants in Israel's 75-year history and revealed a staggering intelligence failure by the country's security forces.

Israel has since responded by enacting a blockade on Gaza and launching a barrage of airstrikes into the Palestinian enclave, sparking a humanitarian crisis. Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed more than 4,100 people, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

The hostages released on Friday were handed over to the Red Cross, according to a source familiar with negotiations for their release. CNN has reached out to the Red Cross.

They were released on "humanitarian grounds" because the mother is in poor health, the same source said. The release was the result of negotiations between Qatar and Hamas.

A bakery prepares rations of bread to pass out to internally displaced Palestinians in the Rafah refugee camp, in the southern Gaza Strip on October 17, 2023. Relief convoys which have been waiting for days in Egypt were on October 17, headed towards the Rafah border crossing with the besieged Palestinian enclave of Gaza, aid officials said. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP) (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images)
Israel-Hamas war rages as Gaza awaits aid in worsening conditions
In a statement, Hamas spokesperson Abu Obaida said: "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."

Qatar confirmed the release of the two American hostages and said they will "continue dialogue with Israel and Hamas in hope of releasing all civilian hostages from every nationality," the spokesperson for Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Majid Al-Ansari said in a statement.

President Joe Biden said he is "overjoyed" that the two US citizens will "soon be reunited with their family," and called for their privacy. Biden reiterated that his administration has been "working around-the-clock" to free Americans held hostage by Hamas.

"Jill and I have been holding close in our hearts all the families of unaccounted for Americans," he said. "And, as I told those families when I spoke with them last week—we will not stop until we get their loved ones home. As President, I have no higher priority than the safety of Americans held hostage around the world."

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The release of the two American hostages is "hopefully the start of more to come," a diplomatic source with knowledge of the arrangements told CNN. The source indicated no exchanges were part of their release.

Photographs of some of those taken hostage by Hamas are seen on October 18, 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Photographs of some of those taken hostage by Hamas are seen on October 18, 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Leon Neal/Getty Images
The news came after US President Joe Biden, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak flocked to Israel in recent days, amid growing pressure on world leaders to secure the release of the hostages.

A number of foreign nationals were among those kidnapped by Hamas, including people from the US, Mexico, Brazil and Thailand.

Information about the status, location and identity of all the hostages remains scarce. Some have been identified by families who recognize them from online videos, sparking desperate pleads for their return.

In a statement on Friday, Hamas said it is working with mediators in Egypt, Qatar and other "friendly countries" to release foreign nationals.

"This commitment remains resolute as we endeavor to enact our decision to release individuals of foreign nationalities under temporary custody, as and when security circumstances permit," the statement said.

Representatives of the hostages have welcomed the release of the two Americans.

"The families' headquarters welcomes the release of hostages from Hamas captivity," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement to CNN.

"We call on world leaders and the international community to exert their full power in order to act for the release of all the hostages and missing."

Humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens
An Israeli blockade of food, water, fuel and electricity is "going to kill many, many people" in Gaza, a senior aid official warned Friday, as Israel's siege and bombardment of the enclave approached the two-week mark.

Relentless airstrikes have killed more than 4,100 people in Gaza, including at least 1,660 children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. More than 13,000 have been injured and there are growing fears that millions of Palestinians could be permanently displaced.

Displaced Palestinians fetch drinking water in the yard of a UNRWA school in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on October 20, 2023.
Displaced Palestinians fetch drinking water in the yard of a UNRWA school in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip on October 20, 2023.
Mahmud Hams/AFP/Getty Images
On Thursday night, the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem said its church compound in Gaza City was hit in an Israeli airstrike, causing one church building to partially collapse, according to CNN's analysis of video on the ground.

Seventeen people were killed in the airstrike, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Former Michigan Congressman Justin Amash said several of his relatives were among the dead.

In a statement, the Patriarchate said that "targeting churches and their institutions, along with the shelters they provide to protect innocent citizens, especially children and women who have lost their homes due to Israeli airstrikes on residential areas over the past thirteen days, constitutes a war crime that cannot be ignored."

The IDF on Friday acknowledged that "a wall of a church in the area was damaged" as a result of an IDF strike.

Meanwhile, seven hospitals and 21 primary care health centers had been rendered "out of service," and 64 medical staff have been killed, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said Friday.

"It is absolutely life or death at this point," Avril Benoit, executive director for Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), told CNN.

The administration of Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza said on Friday that the Israeli military has demanded the immediate evacuation of the hospital in preparation for a nighttime airstrike

The IDF said that it requested residents in the northern area of the Gaza Strip to evacuate "in order to mitigate civilian harm." But according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, Al-Quds Hospital currently houses over 400 patients and approximately 12,000 displaced civilians who have sought refuge there as a safe haven.

TOPSHOT - Smoke billows after an Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on October 16, 2023. The death toll from Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip has risen to around 2,750 since Hamas's deadly attack on southern Israel last week, the Gaza health ministry said October 16. Some 9,700 people have also been injured as Israel continued its withering air campaign on targets in the Palestinian coastal enclave, the Hamas-controlled ministry added. (Photo by SAID KHATIB / AFP) (Photo by SAID KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images)
They followed evacuation orders. An Israeli airstrike killed them the next day.
Amnesty International has said Israel's "collective punishment" of Palestinian civilians for Hamas' attack amounts to a war crime.

Meanwhile, around 200 trucks carrying vital aid destined for Gaza remain stuck in Egypt, despite a frantic diplomatic effort to open the Rafah crossing. Negotiations continued through Thursday as workers filled dangerous road craters from Israeli bombing to allow up to 20 trucks to pass in an initial delivery.

Deputy United Nations spokesperson Farhan Haq said Friday that the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wants sustained delivery operations to Gaza.

Haq said the Secretary-General "wants to make sure that UNRWA, the relief and works agency, has fuel on its side so it can distribute humanitarian aid to the population."

"It is no use dropping off aid on the other side and then leaving it there because the trucks simply do not have enough fuel on that side to give it to the people who need it," he added.

Guterres traveled to the Rafah crossing on Friday as part of the UN's efforts to help aid reach Gaza.

"Behind these walls, we have two million people that are suffering enormously. So, these trucks are not just trucks, they are a lifeline. They are the difference between life and death," Guterres said at a press conference held on the Egyptian side of the border.

Egyptian Red Crescent workers coordinate aid for Gaza, as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to the media at Al Arish Airport in Egypt on Friday, October 20, 2023.
Egyptian Red Crescent workers coordinate aid for Gaza, as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to the media at Al Arish Airport in Egypt on Friday, October 20, 2023.
Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters
A CNN team on the ground attended the press conference and witnessed a protest by several hundred demonstrators break out after Guterres finished his speech. Guterres was then forced to leave the Rafah gate earlier than planned as the protest began to get out of control.

"There is no life now... It's just trying to survive. That's it," a Palestinian man living in Gaza, who wished to remain anonymous, told CNN.

The population of southern Gaza has swelled in recent days after the Israeli military told around 1 million residents to leave northern Gaza ahead of the expected Israeli ground incursion.

Palestinians brace for potential IDF ground operation
Israeli forces are preparing for the "next stages" of their attack, IDF spokesperson Hagari said in a news conference Friday. "As we speak, the crossings are closed and no equipment (aid) is getting into the strip," he added.

His comments come on the heels of similar sentiments shared by Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday. Gallant told troops gathered not far from the Gaza Strip that they will "soon see" the enclave "from the inside."

Israeli soldiers patrol near the Gaza border as airstrikes into Palestinian enclave continue on October 19, 2023.
Israeli soldiers patrol near the Gaza border as airstrikes into Palestinian enclave continue on October 19, 2023.
Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
A ground operation could displace millions of Palestinians. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told CNN's Becky Anderson that Israel's push for a forceful transfer of Palestinians out of Gaza was "designed to end the question of the Palestinian right to return of the Palestinian refugees."

He said that potentially transferring so many Palestinians is a national security issue for Egypt as well as for Jordan. "If that is going to happen in Egypt, then who will prevent the Israelis from pushing us here in the West Bank to be forcefully transferred to Jordan?" He added that this is an existential issue for Palestinians.

Protests across the Middle East
Protests have erupted in response to Israel's bombardment of Gaza, enveloping much of the Arab world this week. Thousands of people took to the streets following Islamic Friday prayers.

Protesters marched in Yemen on Friday to condemn Israel's airstrikes, the official Houthi news agency SABA reported.

The Iran-aligned Houthi movement, which controls most of northwestern Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, organized the demonstration in "mobilization and in support of the Palestinian people and the mujahideen in Gaza," SABA said.

Protesters wave Palestinian flags during a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Amman, Jordan on Friday.
Protests across Mideast as US' Arab allies warn against pushing Palestinians out
"The mass crowds denounced the brutal massacres of the Zionist-American enemy, the crimes and genocidal war it is committing against the Palestinian people, and the prevention of the entry of humanitarian and medical aid in full view of the world," the agency added.

In Beirut, several hundred people gathered to denounce the Israeli operation. Many waved the Palestinian and Lebanese flags, along with the flags of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group and its political ally in Lebanon, Amal. Young protesters burned the American flag, decrying Washington's support for Israel.

Hundreds of Iraqis, mostly supporters of Iran-backed militias, staged a sit-in Friday at Iraq's main border crossing with Jordan. Others protested in Baghdad, not far from the fortified Green Zone that houses the United States embassy.

Thousands of protesters shouting anti-Israel slogans gathered in Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt and Tunisia as well, as regional leaders grow frustrated with the rising Palestinian death toll and the US' apparent unwillingness to restrain Israel's actions.

In Egypt and Jordan, both US allies who have signed peace treaties with Israel, officials have sounded alarms over what they perceive as a plan to transfer Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank to Egypt and Jordan. While Israel has not announced any such plans, both countries have warned such a move could pull them into war.

This story is developing and being updated.

Former hostage negotiator explains why release was a 'smart move' by Hamas02:40
LIVE UPDATES
Israel-Hamas war rages as Gaza awaits aid in worsening conditions
By Tara Subramaniam, Lauren Said-Moorhouse, Alisha Ebrahimji, Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Vogt, Tori B. Powell and Emma Tucker, CNN

Updated 8:45 p.m. ET, October 20, 2023
What we're covering
Two American hostages, a mother and her daughter, were released Friday by Hamas and are with Israeli authorities, according to Israel's prime minister. The US citizens will be reunited with family at an Israeli military base, officials said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised their release, and said the "urgent work" to free all American hostages — and other hostages taken by Hamas during their October 7 attack — must continue. An Israeli military official credited "military pressure" for the release of the mother and daughter.
Conditions in Gaza are deteriorating as Israeli strikes pound the Palestinian enclave and aid agencies warn hospitals are nearly out of fuel. As a result, protests against the siege of Gaza are taking place in cities across the Middle East.
Humanitarian aid that has been stuck in Egypt should reach Gaza within "24-48 hours," US President Joe Biden said Friday. The UN has said the trucks waiting at the southern Rafah crossing will be the "difference between life and death."
The US and its allies have been urging Israel to set clear goals if and when it launches a ground invasion of Gaza, placing a particular emphasis on avoiding civilian casualties, US and Western officials told CNN.
Here's how to help humanitarian efforts in Israel and Gaza.

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3 New Updates
1 hr 26 min ago
Israeli airstrikes kill at least 15 in Gaza, Ministry of Interior says
From CNN's Kareem El Damanhoury
Israeli airstrikes on north and central Gaza have killed at least 10 people Friday night into Saturday, the Hamas-run Ministry of Interior in Gaza said in a statement early Saturday local time.

In southern Gaza, at least another five people — four children and a woman — were killed, the ministry said in a later statement, claiming the airstrikes are "targeting" residential homes across the strip.

CNN cannot independently verify those claims. CNN has reached out to Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.

1 hr 29 min ago
US and its allies call for Israel to set out clear goals if and when a ground invasion of Gaza is launched
From CNN's Natasha Bertrand, Katie Bo Lillis and Oren Liebermann
The US and its allies have been urging Israel to be strategic and clear about its goals if and when it launches a ground invasion of Gaza, warning against a prolonged occupation and placing a particular emphasis on avoiding civilian casualties, US and Western officials told CNN.

In private discussions with their Israeli counterparts, Western defense officials have not tried to dissuade Israel from moving into Gaza with ground forces, the sources said.

But they have emphasized that Israel should have clear objectives when it comes to degrading Hamas and seeking to avoid a long-term occupation of the Gaza Strip.

"Our advice to them isn't 'Don't do it,' because we completely respect their right to go after Hamas and that means going after them wherever they are," a NATO defense minister told CNN. "So it's not 'Don't do it,' but it is 'Think about what happens and have a strategy, not just a tactical maneuver.' We expect Israel to act within international humanitarian law, but we understand that they're dealing with an enemy here."
US President Joe Biden expressed a similar sentiment in an interview with "60 Minutes" last week.

While he said that "taking out the extremists is a necessary requirement" for Israel, "Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don't represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza again."

And on Wednesday, while in Tel Aviv, Biden warned in public remarks that wartime leadership "requires clarity about the objectives and an honest assessment about whether the path you're on will achieve those objectives."

An Israeli official confirmed that these discussions with the US and other allies are taking place.

A separate senior Israeli official said Friday that "Israel is well aware of the humanitarian issues and is taking steps to address it in cooperation with the US government. It's Hamas who has turned the 2 million people of Gaza into a human shield."

Read more.

2 hr 13 min ago
US "very much involved" in release of Americans held hostage, White House official says
From CNN's Betsy Klein
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby appears on CNN on Friday, October 20.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby appears on CNN on Friday, October 20.  CNN
The US was "very much involved" in securing the Friday release of two Americans held hostage for 14 days by Hamas, said National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.

"We were very much involved at various levels in helping secure their release," the White House official told CNN on Friday, offering credit to Israel and Qatar, which played "key roles," he said.

Kirby declined to discuss the motivations and details behind Hamas' willingness to release Judith Tai Raanan and Natalie Raanan.

"We know that there's still some Americans being held hostage, and we want to get them back to their families, too," Kirby said. "So I hope you can understand that we're not really going to be able to talk much about motivations and the details here. We're just glad that they're safe and sound and hopefully home soon."
He said the US is not "interfering" in Israel's military operations, but did reiterate that the issue of hostages was "front and center on the president's mind when he met with the Prime Minister (Netanyahu) and he had the chance to meet with some of the families."

On the humanitarian corridor at Rafah crossing, Kirby said it will be open "very, very soon."

US President Joe Biden is confident the humanitarian assistance would flow into Gaza "in the coming hours, if not a couple of days," Kirby added.

The road leading to the crossing has suffered damage, preventing the trucks from being able to "traverse that road safely and efficiently," he said, adding, "...the Egyptians are working on repairs to that road."

Kirby also defended the administration's efforts to protect innocent people in Gaza, saying that collateral damage has been a key concern of the Biden administration.

"We're going to do everything we can to not only get the gate open and get that stuff in but put in place a sustainable method for it to keep going," Kirby said, adding Biden "has been laser-focused on this from very, very early on."

1 hr 56 min ago
Israeli official credits "military pressure" for the release of Hamas hostages
From CNN's Matthew Chance and Florence Davey-Attlee
The release of two American hostages from Gaza was the result of Israel's sustained "military pressure" on Hamas, a senior Israeli official said Friday.

"Pressure has been applied on Hamas, and that pressure will intensify until we hopefully get all of our hostages out," the official from the Israeli prime minister's office told CNN's Matthew Chance.

The release of Judith and Natalie Raanan will not change Israel's plans for Gaza, the official said.

"That (military) pressure isn't going to go because they were released," the official said. "It won't change the mission, which is to dismantle Hamas."
The official suggested the hostage release may have been an attempt by Hamas to lessen the Israeli military response.

Despite the development, which the Qatari government said it brokered through negotiations with Hamas, the Israeli official was critical of any diplomatic engagement with the Palestinian militant group.

"Whoever talks to Hamas, it's their prerogative ... anybody who has diplomatic relations with this terrorist organization, which is worse than ISIS ... I think that's outrageous," the official said.

Asked about the condition of the Raanans, the official said: "We are in the process of seeing how they are."

The source dismissed Hamas' claim the hostages were released on humanitarian grounds, saying "humanitarianism doesn't really apply to Hamas, they are savages."

The official declined to discuss whether Israel believed there were any other American hostages alive inside Gaza, or give any information on the status of hostages from other countries, saying they did not want to jeopardize their release.

Speaking to reporters about the hostages' release Friday afternoon, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken referenced "10 additional Americans who remain unaccounted for in this conflict."

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2 hr 34 min ago
Hamas releases 2 American hostages. Here are other headlines you should know
From CNN staff
Hamas released US citizens Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie Raanan, who were kidnapped during the initial attack against Israel nearly two weeks ago, according to the office of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They are now in the care of the Israel Defense Forces, spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Friday.

The US welcomes the release and "shares in the relief that their families, friends and loved ones are feeling," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a briefing Friday. US President Joe Biden said he is "overjoyed" the mother and daughter will "soon be reunited with their family." He spoke with the released hostages by phone Friday, according to the White House.

A US official confirmed that there are more American hostages still being held by Hamas. Israel previously told the US government that some Americans held hostage by Hamas are known to be alive, a US official told CNN.

Here are other headlines you should know:

Hospital trouble: Seven hospitals and 21 primary care health centers in Gaza are "out of service," and 64 medical staff have been killed as Israel continues its airstrikes, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health said Friday. Also, the administration of Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza says the Israeli army has contacted them demanding the immediate evacuation of the hospital in preparation for a nighttime airstrike.
On the ground developments: The Israel Defense Forces are preparing for the "next stages" in the fight against Hamas as the conflict continues, IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Friday. Several people have been injured in clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in several areas in the occupied West Bank on Friday, according to a Palestinian Red Crescent Society statement.
Rafah crossing: Blinken said Friday he expects to see the Rafah border crossing open for humanitarian aid to Gaza soon. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres emphasized the critical importance of delivering aid to the Gaza Strip, saying the vehicles carrying supplies "are not just trucks — they are a lifeline." And Biden told reporters at the White House Friday that trucks carrying much-needed humanitarian aid should enter Gaza "within the next 24-48 hours," after delays prevented the convoy from delivering supplies via the critical Rafah crossing from Egypt to Gaza as scheduled Friday.
More aid: Iran warned the US about the consequences of sending weapons to Israel, saying it would further complicate the situation in Gaza, according to Iran's state-aligned news outlet Tasnim. The comment comes as Biden's administration requested more than $105 billion in supplemental funding from Congress Friday, to provide security and humanitarian assistance for the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, among other key US priorities. Also, another plane carrying World Health Organization medical supplies for Gaza landed in Egypt's Al-Arish Airport on Friday morning, the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean said on X. Additionally, Guterres wants to ensure the UN's Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has enough fuel to distribute humanitarian aid shipments by truck to Gaza, deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq said Friday.
Evacuations: About 100,000 civilians have been evacuated from their homes so far in northern and southern Israel, according to the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
Protests: Protests against Israel's siege of Gaza are taking place all throughout cities in the Middle East on Friday. Hundreds of protesters gathered near downtown Cairo's Tahrir Square in support of Palestinians on Friday, CNN journalists witnessed. Several hundred people protested in Beirut to denounce the Israeli offensive on Gaza. Protesters waved the Palestinian and Lebanese flags, along with the flags of Hezbollah and its political ally, the Amal Movement. And in Yemen, protesters marched on Friday to condemn Israel's offensive in Gaza, the official Houthi news agency SABA reported on Friday.
International input: Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib is asking Israel to declare a 48-hour ceasefire, telling CNN "then we will know exactly who is starting what." Also, Biden spoke Friday morning with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, following up on humanitarian assistance plans agreed to earlier this week in Tel Aviv and discussing hostage relief efforts, the White House said. And Blinken on Friday would not say outright whether he believes Israel has respected the laws of war in its actions toward Gaza.