Hamas has released two Israeli civilians held hostage in Gaza, 79-year-old Nurit Cooper and 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz, with the militant group saying they were let go for "humanitarian reasons and poor health grounds." Hamas shared a video of armed fighters releasing the elderly hostages that shows Lifshitz reaching back to shake the hand of one of her captors and saying "Shalom" — the Hebrew word for "peace." We feature comments from Lifshitz upon her release as she describes humane treatment by her captors and expresses criticism of Israel's intelligence failure, and we get a response from Palestinian American journalist Rami Khouri. "She represents probably the essence, I think, of what makes Judaism such a special religion. It is based on ethics … and the pursuit of justice," Khouri says. The struggle of Palestinians "is not with Jewish people. It is with the Zionist movement that became the state of Israel, which is widely recognized around the world as an apartheid system." Transcript: democracynow.org Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET. Support independent media: https://democracynow.org/donate Subscribe to our Daily Email Digest: https://democracynow.org/subscribe