GAZA -- Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), said Monday in a statement that it has released two more hostages for "humanitarian reasons."

The brigades said the release was achieved through "Egyptian-Qatar mediation" and identified the two released as Nurit Yitzhak and Yochved Lifshitz, without elaborating on their nationalities.

This is the second time that Hamas has decided to release some of the hostages it took from Israel on Oct 7. On Friday, it released two American hostages.