Americans freed by Hamas reunited with family, speak with Biden on phone

US President Joe Biden on Friday spoke by phone with the family of the two Americans released by Hamas terrorists after taking them hostage.

“I just spoke with the two Americans released today after being held hostage by Hamas. I let them know that their government will fully support them as they recover and heal. Jill and I will continue holding close in our hearts all the families of unaccounted for Americans,” a post on the official X handle for POTUS read.

Later, an image posted by the US Embassy in Jerusalem showed the mother-daughter duo on the phone with President Biden.

Two newly freed American hostages, a Chicago-area woman and her teenage daughter, were reunited with their family inside Israel on Friday as relatives celebrated back home in Illinois, nearly two weeks after Hamas terrorists abducted them and dozens of others near Gaza.

Judith Tai Raanan, 59, and her daughter Natalie, 17, were handed over to Israeli forces at the Gaza Strip border on Friday, becoming the first captives whose release by Hamas has been confirmed by both sides since the latest round of Arab-Israeli bloodshed erupted.

The release was announced by Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, and confirmed a short time later in a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to both Netanyahu and relatives, the mother and daughter were abducted from Kibbutz Nahal Oz during the surprise assault on southern Israel carried out from Gaza on October 7.

The pair were visiting the Kibbutz, about a mile from the Gaza border, as part of a trip that began in September to celebrate the Jewish holidays, the younger Raanan’s high school graduation and the 85th birthday of her grandmother, family members said.