RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas released two elderly Israeli women held hostage in Gaza on Monday, as the United States expressed increasing concern that
People participate in a 'Bring Them Home' solidarity rally in Trafalgar Square calling for the release of hostages held in Gaza by Hama on October 22, 2023 in London, England. The Israeli government says 210 hostages were taken by Hamas from communities in southern Israel during the Palestinian militant group's surprise attack on October 7th. The hostages, which include Israelis as well as foreign nationals, are being held captive in the Gaza Strip.
The two freed hostages, 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz and 79-year-old Nurit Cooper, were taken out of Gaza at the Rafah crossing into Egypt, where they were put into ambulances, according to footage shown on Egyptian TV. The two women, along with their husbands, were snatched from their homes in the kibbutz of Nir Oz near the Gaza border during Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampage into southern Israeli communities. Their husbands were not released.
The U.S. has told Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and other groups not to join the fight. Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire almost daily across the Israel-Lebanon border, and Israeli warplanes have struck targets in the occupied West Bank, Syria and Lebanon in recent days. Israeli tanks and ground forces have been massed at the Gaza border, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told troops there Monday to keep preparing for an offensive “because it will come.” He said it would be a combined offensive from air, land and sea but did not give a timeframe.
Israel said it had struck 320 militant targets throughout Gaza over the last 24 hours. The military says it does not target civilians, and that Palestinian militants have fired over 7,000 rockets at Israel since the start of the war. The aid coming in so far is “a drop in the ocean” compared to the needs of the population, said Thomas White, the Gaza director of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.
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