Hamas released two Israeli citizens on Monday, according to multiple sources, amid growing pressure to secure the release of hundreds of hostages taken by the Gaza-based militant group during its brutal October 7 terror attack on Israel. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can confirm that my mother Yochi [Yocheved] Lifshitz was one of two hostages released to the Red Cross this evening. While I cannot put into words the relief that she is now safe,\u201d daughter Sharone Lifschitz said in a statement. <\/p>\n
She said she remained focused on securing the release of her father, still believed to be in captivity. <\/p>\n
Multiple sources named Nurit Cooper as the second hostage freed on Monday. <\/p>\n
The militant group\u2019s fighters killed more than 1,400 people that day, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), in what was the most deadly attack by militants in Israel\u2019s 75-year history and revealed a staggering intelligence failure by the country\u2019s security forces. <\/p>\n
In response, Israel has bombarded Gaza, which Hamas controls, killing more than 5,000 people and injured more than 15,000 in just over two weeks, according to Palestinian health officials. The blasts have leveled entire neighborhoods, including schools and mosques, and devastated the already insufficient health care system. <\/p>\n
The women were abducted from their homes in Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, a statement from Israel\u2019s prime minister\u2019s office said. Their spouses \u2013 Cooper\u2019s 85-year-old husband Amiram and Lifshitz\u2019s 83-year-old husband Oded \u2013 were kidnapped alongside them and are still held by Hamas, it added. <\/p>\n
The statement praised the efforts that led to the release of the two women on Monday, thanking Egypt and the Red Cross for their assistance. \u201cThe IDF and the security forces have worked hard in the last few days in all channels to bring about their release and to overcome the many difficulties set by Hamas,\u201d the office\u2019s spokesperson said in a statement. <\/p>\n
Hamas confirmed two hostages were released following Qatari and Egyptian mediation in a statement Monday. \u201c[We] released the two detainees\u2026 bearing in mind that the enemy has refused since last Friday to receive them,\u201d Hamas spokesperson Abu Obaida said. \u201cWe have decided to release them for compelling humanitarian and health reasons.\u201d <\/p>\n
The development follows Hamas\u2019 release of two American hostages \u2014 Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter Natalie Raanan \u2013 last week. A Hamas spokesperson at the time claimed that the two US hostages had been released \u201cfor humanitarian reasons\u201d and to \u201cprove to the American people and the world\u201d that claims made by the United States government \u201care false and baseless.\u201d <\/p>\n
Israel has recently widened its offensive against Hamas and its regional enemies, intensifying its bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip, striking Hezbollah cells in Lebanon and targeting the occupied West Bank. <\/p>\n
Hundreds were killed in Gaza after sustained aerial assaults on Monday morning, according to the health ministry in the isolated enclave, which is controlled by Hamas. <\/p>\n
Overnight strikes killed at least 28 people and injured dozens of others in the southern city of Rafah, the Palestinian Ministry of Interior in Hamas-controlled Gaza said early Tuesday (local time). In earlier statements, the ministry said Israeli airstrikes also hit houses in other parts of Gaza overnight, including Beit Lahia in the north and Khan Younis in the south. <\/p>\n
A small number of relief aid trucks have been allowed to cross from Egypt into Gaza since the weekend, but relief agencies warn that the current rate of delivery will do little to address the needs of 2 million people living in the enclave. <\/p>\n
Israel is preparing for a \u201cmultilateral operation\u201d on Hamas from the \u201cair, ground and sea,\u201d Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said Monday. After touring the Ashdod Navy base, Gallant released a video statement instructing Israel\u2019s soldiers to \u201cget ready.\u201d <\/p>\n
A number of foreign nationals were among those kidnapped by Hamas, including people from the US, Mexico, Brazil and Thailand. <\/p>\n
Information about the status, location and identity of all the hostages remains scarce. Some have been identified by families who recognize them from online videos, sparking desperate pleads for their return. <\/p>\n
US President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have flocked to Israel amid growing pressure on world leaders. <\/p>\n
In a statement on Friday, Hamas said it was working with mediators in Egypt, Qatar and other \u201cfriendly countries\u201d to release foreign nationals. <\/p>\n
A total of 34 trucks filled with desperately needed aid traveled into Gaza from Egypt over the weekend. But none carried fuel supplies, which is vital for running hospitals and treating water in the isolated territory. Israel has said fuel would be purloined by Hamas. <\/p>\n
A further 20 trucks crossed Rafah into Gaza on Monday, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). But UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric warned that the current aid provisions reaching Gaza were \u201ca drop in the bucket.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cNo fuel means no functioning water desalination. No fuel also means that humanitarian partners will have to focus almost their entire aid delivery operation on transporting water. It also means no bakeries and no hospitals,\u201d the OCHA statement declared. <\/p>\n
Aid workers and international leaders warned that the supplies were insufficient to combat the \u201ccatastrophic\u201d humanitarian situation in Gaza, while the Palestine Red Crescent Society said it is a \u201cdrop in the ocean\u201d of what is needed. <\/p>\n
As the situation in the strip gets increasingly dire, doctors in Gaza hospitals are being forced to operate without morphine or painkillers due to shortages, according to Leo Cans from Doctors Without Borders. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe currently have people being operated on without having morphine. It just happened to two kids,\u201d said the head of mission in Jerusalem for the group also known as M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res. <\/p>\n
Medical professionals have also described \u201ccatastrophic\u201d conditions at one central Gazan hospital as electricity and fuel supplies run out and crippled medical facilities rapidly become overwhelmed with casualties. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s impossible for any hospital in the world to admit this number of injured,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
At another Gaza hospital, doctors have warned that most of the critically ill infants relying on ventilators in the neonatal unit will die if the electricity supply is interrupted. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf the electricity is stopped, there will be catastrophic events inside this unit,\u201d said Dr. Fu\u2019ad al-Bulbul, head of the neonatal department Unit at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza, in a video released by the Health Ministry in Gaza. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe can save only one [or] two babies but, we cannot save all babies.\u201d <\/p>\n
Over the weekend, Israel called once again for civilians to leave northern parts of the strip \u2013 a warning that was condemned by the World Health Organization and which the Palestinian Red Crescent said amounted to a \u201cdeath penalty for patients.\u201d <\/p>\n
Large plumes of smoke were seen rising from the Gaza skyline after Israeli airstrikes on the strip, a live feed on Al-Jazeera showed. Reuters showed a large smoke cloud rising from Gaza and seen from southern Israel. <\/p>\n
The bombs hit buildings in Rafah, Khan Younis, central Gaza and Gaza City, including homes, the Palestinian Interior Ministry in Gaza said. The IDF said on Monday that it struck 320 \u201cterror targets\u201d in Gaza, including tunnels and \u201cdozens of operational command centers\u201d belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey want us all dead, they are whipping Gaza, this has nothing to do with a war against Hamas,\u201d one resident of Jabalia, Mahmoud, said. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother is paralyzed, she refuses to evacuate and says there is no safe place,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Another resident of Jabalia, Mohammad Salama, said he lost 18 family members in a strike on Monday morning, mostly women and children. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no terrorists here, I swear on all my family members that I lost today, it\u2019s only innocent civilians,\u201d Salama said. <\/p>\n
On Sunday, Hamas and Israeli forces engaged in limited clashes inside Gaza \u2013 in what is believed to be one of the first significant skirmishes on the ground inside the strip since the Islamist militants\u2019 October 7 attack on Israel that killed more than 1,400 people, <\/strong>mostly civilians. <\/p>\n An IDF soldier was killed and three others were wounded during an operation in the area of Kibbutz Kissufim near Gaza on Sunday, according to IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari. Earlier, Hamas said its fighters had destroyed two Israeli military bulldozers and a tank in an ambush near the Gazan city of Khan Younis, forcing Israeli troops to retreat without their vehicles. <\/p>\n The United States and its allies have urged Israel to be strategic and clear about its goals during any ground operation in Gaza, warning against a prolonged occupation and placing an emphasis on avoiding civilian casualties, although the past two weeks have seen more people killed in Gaza than during any previous conflict with Israel. <\/p>\n The mounting death toll has sparked growing protests across the Middle East and further afield as social media fills with imagery of the devastation Gazans are living through. <\/p>\n On Sunday, US President Joe Biden made a flurry of calls to world leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, about the ongoing conflict and amid efforts by US officials seeking to keep it from widening. <\/p>\n The White House said Netanyahu and Biden \u201caffirmed there will now be a continued flow\u201d of humanitarian assistance to Gaza during their call. <\/p>\n