In the first official images since her release from 2.5 years in captivity, Elizabeth Tsurkov can be seen struggling to walk but in upbeat spirits as she reunited with loved ones in an Israeli hospital on Wednesday evening.
Footage of the freed Israeli-Russian academic was released Thursday by the Prime Minister’s Office, which said that Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Tsurkov, who described “harsh conditions” in captivity in Iraq.
In the video, Tsurkov, 38, walks with difficulty while holding onto her brother and a medical staffer. She is said to be suffering from severe back pain that was exacerbated during her captivity. She had undergone a spinal operation prior to being kidnapped in March 2023 by the pro-Iran Iraqi militia Kataeb Hezbollah.
Wearing a gray US Embassy Baghdad shirt, she is seen smiling and joking with doctors and loved ones at the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, where she arrived Wednesday night after landing in Israel from Cyprus following her release.
She told one hospital official that she recognized her after “seeing you in press conferences,” to laughter. The brief clip also showed Tsurkov having to lie on a couch as loved ones embraced her, while she struggled to hold back tears.
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Netanyahu’s office said that Tsurkov thanked the prime minister for helping secure her release. The Times of Israel reported earlier Thursday that Israel had very little to do with freeing Tsurkov, with the US and Qatar playing much bigger roles in the efforts.
Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli-Russian student who was freed after over two years of captivity by an Iraqi militia, is seen in an ambulance upon her arrival at Sheba Hospital in Ramat Gan, Israel. September 10, 2025. (AP/Ariel Schalit)
The statement from Netanyahu highlighted the efforts of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US hostage envoy Adam Boehler and Israeli hostage envoy Gal Hirsch in securing Tsurkov’s release.
Tsurkov told the premier about the “harsh conditions” she was held in, and expressed her desire for all the hostages to return home, Netanyahu’s office said. According to Hebrew media reports, Tsurkov had access to a radio while in captivity and was aware of Hamas’s October 7 attack and the ongoing war in Gaza.
Netanyahu told Tsurkov that “he is working for the return of all our captives and will continue to do so.”
Tsurkov, a student at Princeton University in New Jersey, was kidnapped in March 2023 while conducting research in Iraq, after entering the country with her Russian passport.
Former Israeli hostage Elizabeth Tsurkov is greeted by family and friends at Sheba Medical Center on September 10, 2025. (Ronen Horesh/GPO)
She was held for 2.5 years by the Kataeb Hezbollah militia, which is supported and funded by Iran, and which claimed she was spying for Israel, a charge that Israel and her family denied.
Tsurkov’s mother said that Kataeb Hezbollah’s four-minute video of her daughter in November 2023 was the only sign of life she had received during her captivity: “Since then, nothing. I haven’t received any update. Until now.”
Details of Tsurkov’s captivity have yet to emerge, though Trump wrote on social media in his announcement of her release that the academic was going free after “being tortured for many months.”
Tsurkov was released to the US embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday.
Elizabeth Tsurkov prior to her captivity in Iraq (Courtesy)
The Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported that Tsurkov was freed in exchange for the release of the son of a senior militia figure. The paper cited sources as saying the son of a senior official in one of the militias had been involved in an attack on Iraq’s Agriculture Ministry in June and was arrested by state authorities, and had now been released in exchange for Tsurkov.
The claim has not been publicly confirmed by Israeli, American or Iraqi officials.
Two Iraqi militia officials, who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity, said Tsurkov’s release came about as a result of negotiations and not through a military operation to free her.
The officials said one of the conditions for her release had been the withdrawal of US forces currently stationed in Iraq — which had been agreed upon between Washington and Baghdad last year — and that the US and Israel would not launch strikes on Iraq.
A source in Kataeb Hezbollah told AFP that Tsurkov was released to spare Iraq any “conflicts.”
She “was released according to conditions, the most important of which was to facilitate the withdrawal of US forces without a fight and to spare Iraq any conflicts or fighting,” the source said.
Agencies contributed to this report.
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