Hamas freed 11 more Israeli hostages — nine children and two mothers — Monday, including three with ties to New York City.
The Israeli military confirmed that the nearly dozen kidnap victims had been handed over to the Red Cross and are back in Israel.
The hostages were expected to be freed in exchange for 33 Palestinian prisoners from Israel.
The newly freed hostages were identified as Sharon Cunio, 33, and her 3-year-old twins Emma and Yuli; Karina Engel, 51, and her two daughters Mika, 18, and Yuval, 10; 16-year-old Amit Shani; brother and sister Sahar, 16, and Erez Calderon, 12; and brothers Or, 16, and Yigil Yaakov, 12, the Times of Israel reported.
They will undergo medical assessments, with Israeli soldiers set to escort them until they are finally reunited with their families after being trapped in Gaza for seven weeks, the IDF said.
Despite White House optimism that two American women might be included in the latest batch of hostages freed from Gaza, officials confirmed that no one with US citizenship was released Monday.
“We do not believe that there are Americans in this group coming out today,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told CNN.
The rep said the White House still hopes the women will be among those freed in the next few days, after the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas was extended through Wednesay.
“We’re working on this, literally by the hour,” Kirby said.
Among the hostages freed Monday were three members of the Cunio family, who were kidnapped from their home in Kibbutz Oz on Oct. 7. Sharon’s husband, David, 34, was also abducted and remains under Hamas’ custody in Gaza.
The family had been hosting their relatives – Danielle Aloni, 44, and her 5-year-old daughter Amelia – when Hamas broke into their home and kidnapped the family. Aloni and Amelia were among the first group released by Hamas Friday.
Relative Alana Zeitchik of New York City called the release of Sharon and her children the family’s “second miracle.”
“Sharon and our babies Emma and Yuli are on their way home. To see them being carried out of there is an indescribable feeling,” Zeitchik wrote on Instagram. “Slowly our hearts are mending. However, David and his brother Ariel remain in captivity, so we still need our third miracle.”
Zeitchik had created the “Bring Our Family Home” Instagram account to plead with the Biden administration to help broker the loved ones’ freedom.
The Calderon siblings have also seen their family call on America’s help, with their aunt, Abbey Onn of Massachusetts, pleading for their safe return since the war began.
Onn said the siblings, along with four other relatives, were taken from Nir Oz on Oct. 7 as family members received messages of the Hamas invasion.
“We last heard from them on WhatsApp in the middle of the day on [that] Saturday,” Onn told CBS. “We got messages throughout the morning that Hamas was in the kibbutz, that there was gunfire, and that they were in their homes, that they had overturned everything in their house and that they were afraid for their lives.”
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