Evanston resident details two weeks being held hostage by Hamas
EVANSTON — Judith Ranaan and her teenage daughter — the Evanston residents who were the first hostages released after the Oct. 7 terror strikes into Israel by Hamas — shared their harrowing two-week story Wednesday.
Raanan described the initial terror when she heard gunfire and the voices of men speaking Arabic, and in the moment, realized she and her daughter were about to be kidnapped at gunpoint. That night was the beginning of a two-week ordeal for the two.
“That was the moment the rocket hit the bedroom where I was,” Ranaan described to NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas in an exclusive interview.
Raanan said she rushed to her daughter Natalie’s bedroom to prepare her for the armed militants who were fast approaching.
“I understood that I have two minutes to explain to my daughter what is about to happen,” Raanan said. “And I did.”
After getting zip-tied, the militants took Raanan and her daughter captive, beginning a journey back to the Gaza Strip, where she said militants grew frustrated with their slow pace.
“He said, ‘If you don’t walk faster, I will shoot you.’ And he shot the ground … [It was] pretty scary,” Raanan said. “But there was nothing I could do. I was wearing flip flops.”
Raanan said she and her daughter eventually reached a Gaza hospital where hospital staffers cheered at the sight of the captives, which preceded two weeks of captivity where they were moved about to various locations.
Raanan attributed her basic fluency in Arabic and ability to communicate with her captors as reasons she and her daughter survived.
“I happened to take one class in Arabic at Oakton Community College,” Raanan said.
After being released by Hamas, the two talked to president Joe Biden over the phone, and Raanan said she prays for the hostages who remain back in Gaza, and will continue to do so until the remaining hostages come home.
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