President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli-Russian researcher at Princeton University, was released by an Iranian-backed terrorist group in Iraq to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Tsurkov was kidnapped in Baghdad in 2023 while working on her doctoral thesis by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist group separate from Lebanese Hezbollah.

“I am pleased to report that Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton Student, whose sister is an American Citizen, was just released by Kata’ib Hezbollah (MILITANT Hezbollah), and is now safely in the American Embassy in Iraq after being tortured for many months,” Trump said on Truth Social. “I will always fight for JUSTICE, and never give up. HAMAS, RELEASE THE HOSTAGES, NOW!”

Tsurkov’s sister Emma, who has been a vocal advocate for her freedom, thanked the Trump administration in an X post, noting that her sister had been in captivity for more than 900 days.

“We are so thankful to President Trump and his Special Envoy, Adam Boehler. If Adam had not made my sister’s return his personal mission, I do not know where we would be,” Tsurkov said. “We also want to thank Josh Harris and his team at the US Embassy in Baghdad for the support they provided to our sister and the team at the nonprofit Global Reach who advocated relentlessly for my sister’s safe return.”

Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber also celebrated her release.

“The release of Princeton graduate student Elizabeth Tsurkov brings relief and joy to the University community, and we celebrate that she will be reunited with her family. We thank President Trump for securing Elizabeth’s release,” Eisgruber said. “We are also grateful to those who worked tirelessly to bring an end to her terrible ordeal, including her family, friends and advocates.”

Multiple groups of U.S. lawmakers had appealed to administration officials to work to secure Tsurkov’s release. Kataib Hezbollah, the group that kidnapped Tsurkov, holds an official role in the Iraqi government.

Tsurkov’s captors released a video in 2023 in which Tsurkov claimed to be an Israeli and American spy, which Emma Tsurkov said was clearly made under duress.

Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ), who helped lead efforts earlier this year to advocate for Tsurkov’s release, told Jewish Insider he spoke on Tuesday evening with Emma Tsurkov while she was on a videoconference with her sister, a conversation he said was “very emotional.”

The Tsurkov family, Kim said, has been through “so much” and “I can’t even imagine what it’s been like for Elizabeth.”

“My immediate thoughts [are] just making sure she’s getting the care she needs. I’ve done a lot in the past … when I was at the State Department on hostages and the kind of care they need coming out of it,” he said. “So it’s going to be a long road ahead.”

He said that he wishes Emma “all the best with the recovery” and offered the family any help he can provide to ensure she receives the care she needs. He said he hopes to see both sisters in the United States in the future.

He added that Emma Tsurkov’s “strength as a sister, just being there, just holding that hope for Elizabeth … it’s amazing, it’s inspiring.”

Kim said he had not yet been briefed by the administration on Tsurkov’s release, including the terms by which the administration was able to secure Tsurkov’s freedom.

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), who joined a push with Kim for Tsurkov’s freedom, said in a statement, “I’m relieved to hear the news that Elizabeth Tsurkov has finally been released after being held hostage by extremists in Iraq for over two years. I’ve been proud to advocate for her release and applaud all the efforts that made this possible. My thoughts are with Elizabeth and the Tsurkov family as they reunite, and I wish them peace and healing.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who led an appeal from House members for Tsurkov’s release, told JI, “I am overjoyed for Elizabeth Tsurkov’s family and loved ones on this happy occasion. I have long pushed for Elizabeth’s safe return and I’m sending her my prayers and solidarity as she returns home to recover from a 903-day-long nightmare.”

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said on X, “I am deeply grateful that Elizabeth Tsurkov has been released and will finally be reunited with her family and loved ones. Thankful for all who partnered in advocating for her release and for all who tirelessly worked to ensure her safe return.”

Maura Sullivan, a Marine veteran who served in Iraq and later worked as a senior Defense Department official, is aiming to leverage that experience to win the New Hampshire congressional seat currently held by Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH), who is running for the Senate. She’s also leaning on that background as she stakes out her positions on the conflict in the Middle East.

Speaking to Jewish Insider, Sullivan strongly criticized Israel for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying it must take action to ensure more aid to the Palestinian people, but at the same time said that she would not support efforts to cut off U.S. aid to the Jewish state and affirmed her commitment to the U.S.-Israel relationship and the need to eliminate Hamas.

As a Pentagon official, Sullivan said she spent time in the Middle East on “allied reassurance tours,” visiting allies and meeting with top officials, such as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Moshe Ya’alon, then Israel’s defense minister, to learn about Israel’s challenges and capabilities and “talking about the incredibly important relationship between the United States and Israel and strongly reaffirming the United States commitment to our ally Israel.”

“I’ll bring that perspective to the work I do in Congress and will greatly inform because I have that firsthand perspective, experience and knowledge,” Sullivan said, adding that she’d be seeking a spot on the House Armed Services Committee if elected.

“I’ve been very clear since the devastating, absolutely deplorable Oct. 7 attacks that Hamas perpetrated that Israel has the right to defend itself,” Sullivan continued. “I also want to be clear that the conditions in Gaza are inhumane, they’re deplorable and they must be improved immediately. … Hamas can be destroyed and significant aid can be let in at the same time. It’s a false choice to think that those two objectives cannot occur simultaneously.”

She said she has firsthand experience with humanitarian supply issues in a war zone, having served as a logistics and operations officer in Fallujah, Iraq, to move food and other supplies through what was at times an urban combat zone.

Doing so, she said, is “logistically complex” but also “doable” and “necessary.” She said the U.S. should apply “maximum pressure” on Netanyahu to increase aid, or provide aid directly if that fails.

Unlike growing numbers of Democrats in Congress, though, Sullivan said that she does not support efforts to cut off the U.S. supply of arms to Israel in response to the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

“I do not think that the answer in this conflict is to make Israeli civilians less secure due to the actions of their government,” Sullivan said. “In an effort to solve this conflict, the Israeli people need to have the ability to defend themselves against not only Hamas, but also other nefarious actors, [like] Hezbollah and … Iran.”

Sullivan added that she wanted to be clear that Hamas is a terrorist organization, its attack on Oct. 7, 2023, was the “catalyst behind all of this” and that it must return the hostages.

The pathway to a lasting peace, through a two-state solution, requires “eradicating Hamas,” she continued. “The Palestinians need to be able to live in a demilitarized state that they control, not Hamas, and the Israelis need to be able to live beside them in peace.”

Sullivan has visited Israel three times, including visiting extended family of her husband, who is Jewish, in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. She described a visit to Yad Vashem, while she was a Pentagon official, as particularly “powerful and unforgettable.”

Sullivan said she saw during her time in Iraq that “leadership in Washington was totally out of touch” — on both sides of the aisle — with the actual situation on the ground, “and we were sent to a war we never should have been in without a plan to win and without the resources to succeed, in what was arguably the biggest foreign policy debacle this country has seen since the Vietnam War.”

That experience, she said, showed her firsthand the real consequences of decisions made in Washington. She expressed strong support for long-running efforts in Congress to repeal the Authorizations for Use of Military Force for Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Congress has to go on the record if we are going to declare war,” Sullivan said, asked about the U.S. military strikes on Iran. She urged the administration to prioritize the safety of U.S. troops and “resist any effort to drive the U.S. into another costly and deadly war in the Middle East.”

But, Sullivan continued, “Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism, relentlessly driving violence and chaos against the United States, Israel and our allies. A nuclear armed Iran would represent a direct and unacceptable threat to America’s national security, regional stability, as well as Israel’s very existence.”

Given Iran’s recent violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, she said that “Israel is absolutely justified in taking action to dismantle Iran’s dangerous nuclear ambitions. No nation should be forced to stand by while its survival is threatened.”

Sullivan also served on the American Battle Monuments Commission, visiting gravesites of fallen soldiers around the world, which “greatly heightened my sense of the role of America in the world” and what the U.S. means to its allies.

The Marine veteran described the antisemitism crisis in the United States as particularly personal for her, given that her husband is Jewish and they are raising their children, ages 3 and 5, in an interfaith home.

“I understand these issues at a deep and personal level. Judaism was a first-date conversation for my husband and I,” Sullivan said. “My children are not yet old enough to talk to them about it, but it is something that we will need to address as a family.”

She said that she would be a “strong voice in Washington” against antisemitism and noted that it had recently hit close to home when a group of neo-Nazis marched on the state Capitol in Concord.

Sullivan leads the primary field in fundraising, having pulled in nearly $800,000 as of the end of the last quarter. Her leading Democratic primary challenge is Stefany Shaheen, the daughter of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and a former Portsmouth city councilor, who raised $532,000 in the last quarter.

Carleigh Beriont, a Harvard professor and Hampton, N.H., selectwoman, entered the race in June, raising $162,000 that month. Multiple Republicans have filed to run for the seat, but none have reported raising any funds thus far.

Sullivan ran in the 2018 primary against Pappas, who is leaving the seat to run for the Senate. Sullivan won 30% of the vote in 2018 to Pappas’ 42%, before Pappas went on to win his first term in Congress.

The Marine veteran said that she believes that the Democratic Party and the country “needs new and different leadership,” and argued that her military background will make her more effective in holding the administration accountable.

Sullivan drew explicit comparisons between herself, and other female veterans running in swing districts, and the class of female national security leaders — including Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Reps. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA) and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) — who helped Democrats win back the House in 2018.

She’s part of a group calling itself the Hellcats, which also includes New Jersey congressional candidate and Navy veteran Rebecca Bennett, that is trying to emulate their model.

If elected, Sullivan said she’d be the first female Marine ever elected to Congress.

She said she’s heard from voters in the 1st District, particularly veterans and small business owners who typically vote Republican, that they’re supporting her in part because of her military background.

She said her interest in public office was spurred by a family commitment to service as well — her grandfathers fought in World War II and her grandmothers were both involved in Jesuit education, as well as her own military service.

Coming back from Iraq, Sullivan felt a “very deep-seated obligation to commit my life to public service,” particularly because some of those she served with would not have that chance. “To live your life in a way that matters for something and for people way beyond yourself, something so much bigger than yourself — it was a transformational experience.”

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) on Tuesday warned that the war in Gaza appears to be turning into a “quagmire” akin to the Iraq war, without clear objectives or any realistic end point.

The pro-Israel Democrat has grown more vocal lately about his criticisms of the Israeli government and how it has been handling the war in Gaza, as concern about the humanitarian situation in the enclave has mounted on both sides of the aisle. He has also continued to offer support for Israel and emphasize that Hamas is primarily responsible for the war in Gaza.

“I want to see Israel secure the release of hostages and end the war, because as long as the war persists, there’s a real potential — our experience with Afghanistan and Iraq tells us that wars in the Middle East can morph into quagmires that have no clear end in sight that have no clearly defined strategic objectives,” Torres said in an interview with The Bulwark.

“I feel this is a quagmire that could persist indefinitely with no clear end in sight,” he continued, a situation he said would limit the Israeli economy and expansion of the Abraham Accords. He said the Israeli government has failed to outline clear objectives for the war. “It feels like a quagmire reminiscent of the war in Iraq.”

He said that Israel has been “extraordinarily effective” in its operations against Hezbollah and Iran, “but [I] have concerns about the war in Gaza.” 

Torres said that “war becomes a process of mutual dehumanization which we’re seeing in real time. There should be space in the American heart for the humanity of both Israelis and Palestinians.”

He said that Hamas is the “central cause” and “primarily responsible for the suffering that has been unleashed since Oct. 7.” 

But he also said that the “humanitarian crisis in Gaza is simply and morally unacceptable and all parties including Israel and the United States must do their part to ease the hardship and hunger that has taken hold in the Gaza strip. To me, it is wrong to deny or downplay the crisis.”

He rejected arguments that he said he’d seen from Israeli officials that the crisis in Gaza is purely Hamas propaganda, and said that he can’t deny to constituents concerned about the issue that it is happening.

The correct response, he continued, is “not to downplay it, but it’s to tell our constituents that we are doing everything that we can to ease suffering among Palestinian civilians and children. That the war is not against the Palestinian people. It’s against Hamas.”

Iran launched several missiles at a U.S. base in Qatar, the Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Monday. Majed Al Ansari, spokesperson for the ministry, affirmed that “Qatar’s air defenses successfully thwarted the attack and intercepted the Iranian missiles.” 

Qatar “consider[s] this a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the State of Qatar, its airspace, international law, and the United Nations Charter. We affirm that Qatar reserves the right to respond directly in a manner equivalent with the nature and scale of this brazen aggression, in line with international law,” Al Ansari said.

The Ain al-Assad base housing U.S. troops in Iraq was also targeted, an Iraqi security official told the Associated Press.

Three Iranian officials familiar with the plans told The New York Times that Iran gave advance notice to Qatar that attacks were coming.

Qatari authorities had previously grounded all air traffic and the U.S. Embassy in Doha had issued a warning to Americans in the country to shelter in place in anticipation of an Iranian retaliation to U.S. strikes on its nuclear program.

“As part of the State of Qatar’s commitment to the safety of its citizens, residents, and visitors, the competent authorities announce the temporary suspension of air traffic in the country’s airspace,” Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a written statement. “This is part of a set of precautionary measures taken based on developments in the region.”

Al Udeid Air Base, one of the targets of Iran’s strike, serves as U.S. Central Command’s forward headquarters and hosts over 10,000 American personnel. The U.S. evacuated its aircraft from the base in the week prior to the strikes on Iran.

A Reuters report on Sunday quoted a senior U.S. official saying that Iran would likely attempt to strike U.S. assets in the region within one or two days.

According to a White House official, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth were monitoring developments from the Situation Room. President Donald Trump was scheduled to receive a briefing at 1:00 p.m. ET.