RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israel escalated its bombardment of targets within the Gaza Strip, the army stated Tuesday, forward of an anticipated floor invasion towards Hamas militants that the U.S. fears might spark a wider battle within the area, together with assaults on American troops.
The stepped-up assaults, and the quickly rising demise toll in Gaza, got here as Hamas launched two aged Israeli girls who have been among the many a whole bunch of hostages it captured throughout its devastating Oct. 7 assault on cities in southern Israel.
Amid a flurry of diplomatic exercise in Israel for the reason that conflict began, French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, assembly with the households of others held hostage in Gaza earlier than heading to talks with prime Israeli officers.
Gaza’s 2.3 million folks have been operating out of meals, water and drugs since Israel sealed off the territory following the assault. A 3rd small assist convoy entered Gaza on Monday carrying solely a tiny fraction of the cargo assist teams say is critical.
With Israel nonetheless barring the entry of gasoline, the United Nations stated assist distribution would quickly grind to a halt when it could actually not gasoline vehicles inside Gaza. Hospitals overwhelmed by the wounded are struggling to maintain turbines operating to energy lifesaving medical tools and incubators for untimely infants.
The 2 freed hostages, 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz and 79-year-old Nurit Cooper, have been taken out of Gaza on the Rafah crossing into Egypt, the place they have been put into ambulances, in response to footage proven on Egyptian TV. The ladies, together with their husbands, have been snatched from their properties within the kibbutz of Nir Oz close to the Gaza border. Their husbands, ages 83 and 84, weren’t launched.
“Whereas I can not put into phrases the aid that she is now secure, I’ll stay centered on securing the discharge of my father and all these — some 200 harmless folks — who stay hostages in Gaza,” Lifshitz’ daughter, Sharone Lifschitz, stated in a press release.
The ladies have been freed days after an American lady and her teenage daughter. Hamas and different militants in Gaza are believed to have taken roughly 220 folks, together with an unconfirmed variety of foreigners and twin residents.
Lifschitz, an artist and educational in London who spells her identify in another way to her dad and mom, instructed reporters final week that her dad and mom have been peace activists, and her father would drive to the Gaza border to take Palestinians to east Jerusalem for medical remedy.
Kindness, she stated final week, might someway save them.
“I grew up, you understand, with all these Holocaust tales about how all my uncles’ lives have been saved as a result of” of acts of kindness, she stated.
“Do I would like that to be the story right here?” she requested. “Yeah.”
On Monday, Hamas launched a video displaying the handover, with militants giving drinks and snacks to the dazed however composed girls, and holding their arms as they’re walked to Purple Cross officers. Simply earlier than the video ends, Lifshitz reaches again to shake one militant’s hand.
Across the similar time, Israel’s inside safety service, Shin Wager, launched a recording displaying Hamas prisoners — most in clear jail uniforms, however one in a bloody t-shirt and a minimum of one wincing in ache — sitting handcuffed in drab workplaces speaking concerning the Oct. 7 assault. The lads stated they have been beneath orders to kill younger males, and kidnap girls, youngsters and the aged, and that they’d been promised monetary rewards.
The Related Press couldn’t independently confirm both video, and each the hostages and the prisoners might have been performing beneath duress.
The preventing as killed greater than 1,400 folks in Israel — principally civilians slain in the course of the preliminary Hamas assault.
Greater than 5,000 Palestinians, together with some 2,000 minors and round 1,100 girls, have been killed, the Hamas-run Well being Ministry stated. That features the disputed toll from an explosion at a hospital final week. The toll has climbed quickly in current days, with the ministry reporting 436 further deaths in simply the final 24 hours.
On Tuesday, Israel stated it had launched 400 airstrikes over the previous day, killing Hamas commanders, hitting militants as they have been making ready to launch rockets into Israel and putting command facilities and a Hamas tunnel shaft. The day past, Israel reported 320 strikes. The Palestinian official information company, WAFA, stated most of the airstrikes hit residential buildings, a few of them in southern Gaza the place Israel had instructed civilians to take shelter, inflicting many casualties and trapping folks beneath rubble.
Fifteen members of the identical household have been amongst a minimum of 33 Palestinians buried Monday in a shallow, sandy mass grave at a Gaza hospital after being killed in Israeli airstrikes.
Males mentioned the place to suit the shrouded corpse of a small little one.
Israel says it doesn’t goal civilians and says Hamas militants are utilizing them as cowl for his or her assaults. Palestinian militants have fired over 7,000 rockets at Israel for the reason that begin of the conflict, Israel stated.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas. Iranian-backed fighters across the area are warning of potential escalation, together with the focusing on of U.S. forces deployed within the Mideast, if a floor offensive is launched.
The U.S. has instructed Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and different teams to not be part of the struggle. Israel and Hezbollah have traded hearth virtually every day throughout the Israel-Lebanon border, and Israeli warplanes have struck targets in Syria, Lebanon and the occupied West Financial institution in current days.
Nationwide Safety Council spokesman John Kirby stated there was an uptick in rocket and drone assaults by Iranian-backed militias on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, and the U.S. was “deeply involved concerning the risk for any vital escalation” within the coming days.
He stated U.S. officers have been having “energetic conversations” with Israeli counterparts concerning the potential ramifications of escalated army motion.
The U.S. suggested Israeli officers that delaying a floor offensive would give Washington extra time to work with regional mediators on the discharge of extra hostages, in response to a U.S. official, who spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of they have been approved to disclose delicate negotiations.
No less than 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza have fled their properties, and almost 580,000 of them are sheltering in U.N.-run colleges and shelters, the U.N. stated Monday.
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Magdy reported from Cairo and Nessman from Jerusalem. Related Press writers Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Aamer Madhani in Washington, Amy Teibel in Jerusalem and Brian Melley in London, contributed to this report.
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Discover extra of AP’s protection at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war