Elizabeth Tsurkov, 38, a Russian-Israeli and Princeton University graduate student, was released from captivity Tuesday evening after being held as a hostage by an Iran-backed militia in Iraq for more than two years.
In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said:
Today, hostage Elizabeth Tsurkov – an Israeli citizen who was abducted in Iraq in March 2023 – was released.
In staff work directed by Coordinator for the Hostages and the Missing Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Gal Hirsch, which continued for many months, and following many efforts, we succeeded in bringing about her release.
This evening I had an emotional conversation with her mother and Avital, Elizabeth’s sister, and I told them that the entire people of Israel was happy to see her return home.
We will continue to fight with vigor and determination until we bring back all of our hostages, the living and the deceased.
Tsurkov was taken hostage while doing academic research in Baghdad on Syria and Iraq.
She was, the Associated Press reported in 2023 (citing Netanyahu’s office), “held by the Shiite group Kataeb Hezbollah or Hezbollah Brigades, whose leader and founder died in the American airstrike in January 2020 that also killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force and the architect of Tehran’s regional military alliances. The Hezbollah group has close ties to the Iraqi government.”
Tsurkov’s relatives, including her sister, were jubilant, and expressed deep gratitude to President Donald Trump and Special Envoy Adam Boehler, who handles hostage negotiations.
Though Tsurkov’s captivity was unrelated to the seizure of Israeli hostages by Hamas during its October 7, 2023, terror attack, news of her release will cheer Israelis — especially as it comes on the same day that Israel killed several Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, placing the future of hostage negotiations in further doubt.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Zionist Conspiracy Wants You, now available on Amazon. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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