By Nohad Topalian and AFP | 2023-10-23

BEIRUT -- International efforts to rescue the more than 200 hostages that militant group Hamas is holding in Gaza saw limited success on October 20 with the release of two American women, raising hopes that more will follow.

Judith Tai Raanan and her daughter Natalie Shoshana Raanan had been kidnapped while visiting the Nahal Oz kibbutz in southern Israel and were the first hostage releases confirmed by both parties.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for more releases "immediately and unconditionally."

"Every single one of them should be released," he said.

Qatar and Egypt have been working with Hamas to free its civilian hostages -- Israelis, dual nationals and foreigners abducted during the group's October 7 attacks on Israel -- and indicated that more could follow.

Qatar, a key player in the efforts, believes they can be released "very soon" thanks to ongoing discussions, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari.

Doha's mediation played a key role in the release of the two American hostages, he told the German Welt am Sonntag newspaper on October 21.

"I can't promise you this will happen today or tomorrow or after tomorrow. But we are taking a path that will very soon lead to release of the hostages, especially civilians," al-Ansari said.

"We are currently working on an agreement under which all civilian hostages will be initially released," he added.

Al-Ansari said the release of the two women "proved to us and our partners that the efforts made in the past days are feasible and must continue."

Hamas said its military wing, Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, released the two women after being approached by Qatar and Egypt.

Qatar is a major donor of aid to Gaza, and two Hamas leaders are based in the Gulf state.

Al-Ansari said Qatar had mediated between Hamas and the United States and that the release followed "many days of continuous communication between all the parties involved."

"We will continue our dialogue with both the Israelis and Hamas, and we hope these efforts will lead to the release of all civilian hostages from every nationality, with the ultimate aim of de-escalating the current crisis and restoring peace," he said.

Red Cross assistance

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had helped transport the freed Americans to Israel.

ICRC president Mirjana Spoljaric said their release provided a "sliver of hope" for the families of other hostages and called on all sides in the conflict to show "a minimum of humanity."

"The ICRC helped facilitate this release by transporting the hostages from Gaza to Israel, underscoring the real-life impact of our role as a neutral actor between the warring parties," the organization said in a statement.

"The ICRC continues to call for the immediate release of all hostages. We are ready to visit the remaining hostages and to facilitate any future release following an agreement reached by the parties."

"While held in captivity, hostages must be allowed to receive humanitarian assistance and medical care," it said.

Countries who have nationals being held -- including the United States, Britain and France -- have been working in the background to try for a breakthrough, with Israel officially at the forefront of the negotiations.

Neither Washington nor the European Union has any direct channel to Hamas, which they consider a terrorist organization.

Some of the relatives of the hostages appealed for Switzerland to help, suggesting its neutrality could enable the country to mediate.

'Any means available'

The hostages have become a major issue in Israel, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the government would use "any means available to locate all those missing and bring home all the kidnapped."

Israeli forces are massed near the Gaza border, and smaller units have already carried out limited incursions, targeting Hamas and hoping to rescue hostages, whose number Israel now puts at 222.

In one such operation, a 19-year-old Israeli soldier was killed and three others wounded, the army said, adding that the tank operation had aimed "to dismantle terror infrastructure... and locate missing persons and bodies."

The Israeli military said on October 20 that most of those abducted to Gaza were still alive even though some dead bodies have been found on incursions into Gaza.

The military said more than 20 hostages were minors, while between 10 and 20 were over the age of 60. There are also between 100 and 200 people considered missing since the Hamas attacks, the army added.

Analysts told Al-Fassel it is clear that ahead of its attack on Israel, Hamas did not consider what Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank wanted, and did not care about the consequences of its terrorist act.

The attack caused the death of a large number of innocent civilians, both Israeli and Palestinian, they said, and exposed thousands to danger and displacement.

Iran-aligned terror groups

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist group by a number of countries, and is part of the so-called "axis of resistance," political writer Tony Boulos told Al-Fassel.

"This includes under its banner rogue terrorist groups funded by countries, most notably Iran" and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), he said, which were established with the aim of "destabilizing the countries of the region."

International laws and treaties require that prisoners be treated in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Boulos said.

"They should not be exposed to dangers or subjected to torture," he added.

"Civilians, civil defense, the Red Cross and journalists must be treated as neutral, and not used as human shields by any side, in accordance with the provisions of international laws and agreements," he said.

Center for Policy Development director Hisham Dibsi, a Palestinian activist who resides in Beirut, highlighted the need for a "humanitarian initiative" to release prisoners and hostages on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides.

This must have "broad international cover" to lay the foundation for the relaunch of the peace process "on the basis of equal standards for all human beings," he told Al-Fassel.