An American mother and her teenage daughter were released on Friday by Hamas, which turned them over to the Qatari government for humanitarian reasons.

Judith Tai Raanan, 59, and Natalie Shoshana Raanan, 17, who live in suburban Chicago, had been visiting family on the Kibbutz Nahal Oz when Hamas launched its October 7 cross-border attack, according to the Israeli government.

The two, who also hold Israeli citizenship, were brought to the Gaza Strip border where Israeli forces met them and escorted them “to a meeting point at a military base in the center of the country,” where their family members were waiting for them, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.

The mother and daughter appeared to be in good health in a photo published by Israeli media.

In Chicago, Uri Raanan, 71, told The Associated Press that his daughter was “doing good. She’s doing very good. I’m in tears, and I feel very, very good.” He said he thought both women would be back in the U.S. next week.

Relatives of other Hamas captives applauded the release and asked that the others also be set free.

“We call on world leaders and the international community to exert their full power in order to act for the release of all the hostages and missing,” the statement said.

In Washington, President Joe Biden thanked Qatar and Israel for working to free the two women.

“I am overjoyed that they will soon be reunited with their family, who has been wracked with fear,” said Biden, who spoke with the two freed hostages and their relatives.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which transported the freed Americans from Gaza to Israel, said their release was “a sliver of hope.”

French President Emmanuel Macron called the Raanans’ release “a very good result” and said he hoped more hostages would be released, including French Israelis.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also welcomed their release.

“We share in the relief with their families, friends and loved ones,” he said. “But there are still 10 additional Americans who remain unaccounted for in this conflict. We know that some of them are being held hostage by Hamas, along with an estimated 200 other hostages.”

It was not immediately clear why the Raanans were chosen to be released. A spokesman for the armed wing of Hamas, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, said only that they had been freed “for humanitarian reasons” in response to Qatari mediation.

Qatar said it would continue working with Israel and Hamas to win the release of all hostages “with the ultimate aim of de-escalating the current crisis and restoring peace.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.