Elderly Israel woman shakes hands with Hamas operative after being freed from hostage; Video viral
Gaza: In a recent development, the Palestinian group Hamas released two elderly Israeli hostages, Nurit Cooper and Yocheved Lifshitz, late last evening. The release, facilitated through mediation efforts by Qatar and Egypt, was attributed to "compelling humanitarian" reasons.
A video released by Hamas depicted the moment when the two hostages were handed over to representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Notably, before departing, one of the released hostages extended her hand to a masked Hamas operative, exchanging a greeting of 'shalom'.
Following their release, Cooper and Lifshitz were airlifted to an Israeli hospital, where they are set to be reunited with their families on Tuesday. This development comes after Hamas had earlier released two American nationals, Judith Tai Raanan and her daughter Natalie Shoshana Raanan. Hamas announced its collaboration with Qatar and Egypt in efforts to release its "civilian" hostages, hinting at the possibility of further releases in the near future.
The recent hostage situation unfolded on October 7 when Hamas operatives stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip, resulting in the capture of 222 hostages. The Israeli government emphasized the urgency of the situation, as many captives had medical conditions requiring immediate care, and some were elderly. Reports have emerged suggesting that Hamas might release an additional 50 hostages in the coming days.
Addressing the ongoing crisis, U.S. President Joe Biden stated on Monday that discussions about a Gaza ceasefire could only occur if Hamas releases all hostages captured from Israel during the October 7 attack. "We should have those hostages released, and then we can talk," President Biden affirmed during a White House event when questioned about supporting a potential "hostages-for-ceasefire" arrangement.
The October 7 attack resulted in a toll, with at least 1,400 people, primarily civilians, losing their lives, many on the first day of the raid. Subsequently, Israeli forces conducted relentless bombardments across the Gaza Strip, leading to the deaths of more than 5,000 Palestinians, predominantly civilians, in the ongoing conflict.
🇮🇱 govt:
— Propaganda and co (@propandco) October 23, 2023
“Hostages are being raped and tortured”
🇮🇱 hostage: salam shalom *shakes hand* pic.twitter.com/ApWv7P9LZN
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
