Friday brought the news that two Americans held hostage by a Palestinian militant group were freed from their captives in Gaza. The efforts come as an ongoing hostage crisis continues following the Hamas attacks that killed more than 1,300 people in Israel two weeks ago.
The two Americans were released by the Al-Qassam Brigades. The mother and daughter were reportedly freed through the effort of Qatar, which has good relations with both the United States and the Hamas terrorist organization.
A spokesperson for the Al-Qassam Brigades said that the release was done for “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.”
BREAKING: Two American hostages were released from Gaza, Fox News has independently confirmed
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) October 20, 2023
While in Israel earlier this week President Joe Biden said that the United States was “working with partners throughout the region, pursuing every avenue to bring home those who are being held captive by Hamas.”
An unknown number of Americans are currently being held hostage in Gaza. Currently, Washington estimates that at least 11 Americans remain unaccounted for.
The attacks earlier this month left 32 Americans dead.
The hostage release comes as multiple efforts to evacuate Americans from the region.
One particularly successful effort was managed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
The governor’s office evacuated more than 100 people from Israel since the conflict began. DeSantis also criticized Biden, saying that the “State Department and the embassy over in Israel were not helpful to these people.”
“So we did an executive order at the end of last week, and said, ‘we’ll mobilize our emergency response folks – we’ll get planes there to bring Floridians back home from Israel. And so we were able to land the first plane last night,” he said.
DeSantis and his wife Casey greeted the Americans as they returned to Florida. The effort was so successful that most of those evacuated were not from Florida but from other states.
“I had a woman come up to me saying her six-year-old daughter was saying, ‘I don’t want to hear any more rockets. I want to go back to Florida,'” the governor said.
