Israel-Hamas War LIVE Updates: Hamas frees 2 American hostages, Israel airstrikes continue in southern Gaza

President Joe Biden said Friday he thought Hamas was motivated to attack Israel in part by a desire to stop that country from normalising relations with Saudi Arabia.

“One of the reasons Hamas moved on Israel … they knew that I was about to sit down with the Saudis,” Biden said at a fundraising event. The US president indicated that he thinks Hamas militants launched a deadly assault on October 7 because, “Guess what? The Saudis wanted to recognise Israel” and were near being able to formally do so.

Jerusalem and Riyadh had been steadily inching closer to normalization, with Biden working to help bring the two countries together, announcing plans in September at the Group of 20 summit in India to partner on a shipping corridor. (PTI)

Hamas released two US citizens who had been held captive in Gaza. US and European officials have been pressing Israel to delay a ground invasion of the territory and allow time for talks aimed at freeing hostages. President Joe Biden later spoke to the two freed Americans, the White House said on Friday evening.

Leaders from around the region are heading to Cairo for a Saturday summit on the crisis, with China and Germany also sending envoys. (Bloomberg)

A blast at a Gaza hospital was not the result of an Israeli missile strike, but likely caused by a misfiring Palestinian rocket, the French military intelligence directorate (DRM) said on Friday.

Palestinian officials said 471 people were killed in the blast at Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital on Tuesday. Gaza’s health ministry blamed an Israeli air strike, while Israel said the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by militants.

“There is nothing that allows us to say that it is an Israeli strike, but the most likely (scenario) is a Palestinian rocket that had a firing incident,” the DRM said. (Reuters)

Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel that killed about 1,400 people aimed to disrupt a potential normalization of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday.

Saudi Arabia, a Middle East powerhouse and home to Islam’s two holiest shrines, gave its blessing to Gulf neighbors United Arab Emirates and Bahrain establishing relations with Israel in 2020 under the previous U.S. administration of Donald Trump. (Reuters)

US President Joe Biden, when asked by a reporter on Friday whether Israel should delay a potential ground invasion of Gaza until more hostages can get out, said “yes”. (Reuters)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “fight until victory” in Gaza, signaling no pause in his military’s bombardment and expected invasion of the enclave after Hamas released two U.S. hostages.

The Islamist group Hamas on Friday released U.S. mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan who were kidnapped in its attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7.

They were the first hostages confirmed by both sides in the conflict to be freed since Hamas gunmen burst into Israel, killing 1,400 people, mainly civilians, and taking around 200 hostages. (Reuters)

“Meeting with President Abbas today I expressed my condolences for the loss of civilian lives in Gaza, including at the Al Ahli hospital. We know Hamas doesn’t speak for the Palestinian people. The UK supports the Palestinian Authority in trying to establish stability,” 

Israel says Hamas has freed two American hostages who had been held in Gaza since militants rampaged through southern Israel Oct. 7. The hostage release Friday came even as Israeli airstrikes continued to hit southern Gaza, an area swelled by civilians who fled there from the north on Israeli instructions, AP reported.

Israel was also evacuating a sizable town near the Lebanese border in the latest sign of a potential ground invasion of Gaza that could trigger regional turmoil. (AP)

Dozens of activists, including former Nepali Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai on Friday marched in Kathmandu in solidarity with Palestine. They called for a ceasefire and halt to the ongoing attack.

The group of people affiliated with “Brihat Nagarik Aandolan”, a social activist movement in Nepal marched towards the Israeli Embassy property where they were stopped a few metres away by police personnel.

The group of people affiliated with “Brihat Nagarik Aandolan”, a social activist movement in Nepal marched towards the Israeli Embassy property where they were stopped a few meters away by the police personnel.

Participants of the march organized in solidarity with Palestine raised slogans against the ongoing military operation by Israel. They displayed and chanted slogans “Palestine is not alone”, “Support the movement of Palestine”, “Free Palestine”, “Stop Bombing Palestine”, “Save Gaza from Genocide”, and “Ceasefire now” amongst others. (ANI)

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Friday called on Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza, which he said amounted to genocide, and urged the international community to work for a humanitarian ceasefire in the region.

In a post on social messaging platform X, Erdogan also said Israel was provoking non-regional actors instead of turning back from its mistakes in Gaza, adding that the region needed saving from the “frenzy of madness” supported by Western powers and media.

“I repeat my call for the Israeli leadership to never expand the scope of its attacks on civilians and to immediately end its operations amounting to genocide,” Erdogan said. (Reuters)

The White House on Friday asked Congress for nearly $106 billion to fund ambitious plans for Ukraine, Israel and U.S. border security, but offered no strategy for securing the money from a broken Congress.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s request for the funding comes days after he visited Israel and pledged solidarity as the country bombards Gaza following an attack by Hamas militants that killed 1,400 people in southern Israel.

By grouping Israel funding with Ukraine, border security, refugee assistance, measures to counter China and other hotly debated priorities, Biden is hoping he has created a must-pass national security spending bill that can win support in a chaotic House of Representatives.

The chamber, which Republicans won control of last year, has been without a leader for more than two weeks.

Some Republican lawmakers have grown skeptical of the need to fund Ukraine’s war with Russia, and have threatened to halt government altogether to put an end to debt-fueled fiscal spending.

“The world is watching and the American people rightly expect their leaders to come together and deliver on these priorities,” said Biden’s budget director, Shalanda Young, in a letter to acting House speaker Patrick McHenry. “I urge Congress to address them as part of a comprehensive, bipartisan agreement in the weeks ahead.” (Reuters)

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo on Friday and underscored the need for aid to be allowed into Gaza and for Hamas and Israel to avoid civilian casualties in their conflict, Sunak’s office said.

“The Prime Minister expressed his deep condolences for the loss of civilian lives in Gaza … The leaders agreed on the need for all parties to take steps to protect civilians,” Sunak’s office said in a statement following the meeting. (Reuters)

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau reiterated on Friday that his country is still committed to the Israel-Palestine two-state solution. “Canada remains firm and steadfast in our commitment to a two-state solution,” Justin Trudeau said.

“The world and the region needs a peaceful, safe, prosperous, viable Palestinian state alongside a peaceful, prosperous, democratic, safe… Israel,” the Canadian PM said.

At least 16 people died after an alleged Israeli air strike hit a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza. The Palestinian authority says at least 500 Muslims and Christians had taken shelter at the church. The Israeli military said a part of the church was damaged in a strike on a militant command centre and it was reviewing the incident.

Russian envoy to Israel said on Friday that it is in touch with the Hamas militant group to free hostages it has held since October 7 attack.

“Of course, we have contacts with representatives of Hamas, and first of all they are aimed at rescuing the hostages from the places where they are now, captured by Hamas militants on the first day of the – frankly speaking – terrorist attack on Israeli civilians,” Anatoly Viktorov said.

Israel said on Friday that it has no plan to control the life in Gaza after destroying Hamas. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s comments to lawmakers were the first time an Israeli leader discussed its long-term plans for Gaza.

Gallant said Israel expected there to be three phases to its war with Hamas. He said it first would attack the group in Gaza with airstrikes and ground maneuvers, then it would defeat pockets of resistance and finally it would cease its “responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip.”

Israel said on Friday that the Hamas militant group has behaved like animals. an Israeli minister said his country will target Hamas like ‘human animals’ during and after the war.

“You don’t need justification to fight against an organization like Hamas that have behaved like animals hunting other animals. It’s not going to be to be stopped and we are not going to take it as something that was done, and that’s it. We are going to target those animals, human animals, whether during the war or after the war, nobody is going to escape,” Avi Dichter said.

Israel has carried out a controlled demolition in a northern Gaza district, preceded by a half-hour evacuation notice for families still in the area. Additionally, the largest Israeli town near the Lebanese border was ordered to evacuate, signaling the likelihood of an impending command for a Gaza invasion.”

Russia has delivered 27 tonnes of food supplies for civilians in the Gaza Strip set to be transferred from Egypt, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday.

Taking to X, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated, “27 tonnes of food supplies delivered by Russia’s EMERCOM and transferred to the Egyptian Red Crescent for distribution among the people of the Gaza Strip in need. Every bit helps.”

Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Eli Cohen and 22 ambassadors and diplomats from countries whose citizens have been abducted have called for the immediate release of the abductees and to permit visits by the International Red Cross. Cohen said the release of the abductees is Israel’s “foremost priority.”

The Israeli military said on Thursday that nearly 30 of some 200 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are children. More than 10 are over the age of 60, a statement by the Israeli military said adding that authorities have no information about the location of more than 100 missing Israelis.

Cohen held a meeting with dozens of foreign ambassadors whose citizens have been held by Hamas in Gaza and asked to pressurise Hamas to ensure their smooth release. Ambassadors from Peru, Tanzania, Russia, Romania, Portugal, Argentina, Philippines, Georgia, Sri Lanka, France, Mexico, Denmark, Hungary, Austria, Ethiopia, Serbia, Columbia, Italy, Thailand, Canada, the Netherlands, Poland and the European Union participated in the meeting. (ANI)

A liquefied natural gas vessel left an export terminal in Egypt either unloaded or only partially loaded, raising concerns that the Israel-Hamas war may disrupt supplies to global markets, Bloomberg reported.

The Seapeak Catalunya departed for Algeria — another LNG exporting nation — after spending two days at the Idku plant in Egypt, ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. That suggests the vessel either didn’t load, or only picked up limited volumes.

“Although Israel has surplus gas production, which currently supports Egypt and Jordan’s growing demand, a continued or escalated conflict would have wide-ranging implications,” Rystad Energy AS said in a note. The war “poses a serious threat to the regional natural gas market and could have knock-on effects on Europe’s liquefied natural gas supply as winter approaches.” (Bloomberg)

The US’s top diplomat in China called on President Xi Jinping’s government to denounce terrorism by Hamas, citing Beijing’s stance toward the group as yet another challenge in fraught ties between the world’s biggest economies.

“We do not have identical views on this particular position,” Burns said when asked whether he saw the Middle East tensions as an opportunity to improve relations between the US and China. Hamas’s support for the destruction of Israel ran counter to China’s vision for a lasting resolution, he added. (Bloomberg)

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said she would visit Egypt to attend an international conference on Saturday that will discuss ways of tackling humanitarian and safety issues stemming from the Israel-Hamas conflict.

“I plan to visit Egypt to take part in the Cairo Peace Summit, which will be hosted by the Egyptian government to discuss the situation surrounding Israel and Palestine,” Kamikawa told a regular press conference on Friday. (Reuters)

An Indian firm is terminating a longstanding contract to make uniforms for the Israeli police, telling AFP on Friday that it had made a “moral decision” in light of the war in Gaza.

Maryan Apparel in the southern state of Kerala said it had supplied around 100,000 uniforms to Israel’s police force for every year since 2015.

“It is a moral decision,” the company’s managing director Thomas Olickal told AFP.  (AFP)

The Dutch government on Friday advised its citizens against any travel to Lebanon and also urged those still in the country “to leave Lebanon as soon as possible”, joining other European countries who put out the same kind of advise for their nationals.

“As a consequence of unpredictable developments between Israel and the Palestinian Territories, there are heightened tensions in Lebanon,” the government said in statement. (Reuters)

Israel was bombarding Gaza and evacuating a sizable town near the Lebanese border in the latest sign of a potential ground invasion of Gaza that could trigger regional turmoil. Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy airstrikes in Khan Younis in the south, where Palestinians had been told to seek safety, and ambulances streamed into Gaza’s second-largest hospital, already overflowing with patients and people seeking shelter.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has ordered ground troops to prepare to see Gaza “from the inside,” hinting at a ground offensive aimed at crushing Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers. Aid shipments badly needed in Gaza are positioned to enter through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt. (AP)

While Hamas tightly controls besieged Gaza, the West Bank is a complex patchwork of hillside cities, Israeli settlements and army checkpoints that split Palestinian communities, Reuters reported.

Israel occupied the territory in 1967 and has divided it into large areas it controls, small areas where Palestinians have full control and areas where Palestinians and Israeli forces divide civil and security duties.

Between the seat of power in Ramallah and poorer peripheral areas, there are multiple views on the benefits of violence. (Reuters)

Over 1,000 Chinese nationals have left Israel amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday.

According to preliminary statistics, the Chinese nationals who have left have either returned to China or gone to a third country, ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press briefing. (Reuters)

“Wishing all my Indian friends a blessed Navratri and Durga Puja. Just as Goddess Durga’s strength conquered evil, our modern Durgas stand strong, and so will Israel in this fight against terrorism. Goodness will always prevail over evil,” he wrote on X. 

On Israel-Hamas conflict, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said, “What is different in the context of India? Of course, we are impacted by what is happening all over, no doubt on that… Our microeconomic fundamentals continue to be sound, and our financial sector continues to be sound. Eventually, in these uncertain times, what matters is how strong are your microeconomic fundamentals, how strong is your financial sector? I think on both the parameters, India is well placed.” (ANI)

Egypt has removed concrete blocks near the border with Gaza, an Egyptian security source told AFP Friday, raising hopes that desperately needed aid could soon begin flowing to Palestinians trapped inside.

The UN has described the situation inside Gaza as “beyond catastrophic” as Israel pounds the enclave from the air in reprisal for a Hamas attack that was the bloodiest in its 75-year history.

More than 3,700 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed across the Gaza Strip in relentless Israeli bombardments in retaliation for the attacks by the Palestinian Islamist militant group, according to the latest toll from the Hamas health ministry in Gaza. (AFP)

Civilians, the wounded and prisoners must be treated humanely in wartime. Murder, torture, hostage-taking and “humiliating and degrading treatment” are banned. Also, fighters to treat the other side’s sick and wounded. The four conventions agreed upon these rules in 1949.

These rules apply both in times of war and conflict.

War crimes like attacks on civilians, civilian settlements or humanitarian workers, destroying property where militarily is nor necessary, sexual violence and unlawful deportation are illegal. This is cited in the law of war by International Criminal Court.

Use of certain weapons, such as chemical or biological munitions are also not allowed. Read the complete story here.

Internationally recognized laws, including the UN Charter, forbid aggressive wars but permit self-defense. Battlefield conduct is governed by the Geneva Conventions, established after World War II and endorsed by most nations, to safeguard humanitarian principles.

Desperately needed international aid piled up Friday near Gaza, with Palestinians in dire need of food and water after relentless bombing by Israel, still reeling from the bloodiest attack in its history.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the Islamist militant group launched a massive attack from the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians who were shot, mutilated or burned to death, according to Israeli officials.

Hamas gunmen also took nearly 200 people hostage including foreigners from around two dozen countries ranging from Paraguay to Tanzania. (AFP)

enior Israeli officials have spoken about the prospect of an imminent large-scale ground offensive of the Gaza Strip to eliminate the terrorist group Hamas on Thursday. Israel Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told soldiers near Gaza that the order to enter the Palestinian enclave would be given “soon,” The Times of Israel reported.

“You now see Gaza from afar, soon you will see it from the inside,” Gallant told troops of the Givati Brigade. He further said, “The order will come.”  (ANI)

US President Joe Biden Wednesday warned Israel not to make the same mistakes Washington made during 9/11. The recent attack by Hamas on Israel is being considered by Israel as its 9/11 moment and is referred to by Hamas as the Al Aqsa Flood.

“I understand. Many Americans understand,” Biden said, likening the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US that killed nearly 3,000 people.

“You can’t look at what has happened here … and not scream out for justice. While you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it. After 9/11, we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice we also made mistakes,” Biden said. Read the complete story here.

A significant explosion shook al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, where numerous injured individuals and other Palestinians were seeking refuge on Tuesday. The Health Ministry under Hamas’s control stated that hundreds of people lost their lives.

1) A total of ten members of a single family disappeared after Hamas launched a rocket attack on Israel on October 7. The family members include Lilach Kipnis and her husband Eviatar, Shoshan Haran (Lilach’s sister), Avshalom Haran (Shoshan’s husband), their daughter Adi Shoham along with her partner Tal Shoham, their children Naveh and Yahel Shoham, Sharon Avigdori and her daughter Noam Avigdori, The Guardian reported.

“Should I cry because they are already dead?” Ahal Besorai, Yonat Or’s brother, asked. Yonat Or was a 50-year-old who went missing along with her husband Dror and two of their three children.

3) Vivian Silver, a Canadian-born feminist activist also vanished from the kibbutz. The fighter for justice called for peace with Palestinians. Speaking to AFP, her son ‘Yonatan Zeigen’ said, “She is a great mother and grandmother.”

4) A Holocaust historian, Alex Dancyg, disappeared from the Nir-oz kibbutz. The 75-year-old historian has written books on Poland’s Jewish community and the systematic murders of Jews during the Second World War, as per The Guardian reports.

5) Ditza Heiman, a social worker was also taken from the Nir-oz kibbutz. She played a crucial role in community life. According to her family, Heiman was a beloved great-grandmother and a “woman of peace”. Read the complete story here.

The US credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service warned it could downgrade Israel’s rating as the Hamas war rages. The downgrade of credit rating could make it more expensive for Israel to borrow amid the war.

At present, Moody’s has given Israel an A1 credit rating. However, the US rating agency said that the severy of conflict, “raises the possibility of longer lasting and material credit impact”. Read the complete story here.

US President Joe Biden asked Americans to spend billions more dollars to help Israel fight Hamas while Israel’s defence chief told his troops to be ready to go into the Gaza Strip to destroy the Palestinian militant group.

In a televised White House speech late on Thursday that also addressed Ukraine’s effort to repel Russia’s invasion, Biden said Hamas sought to “annihilate” Israel’s democracy.

The president also stressed the urgency of getting relief to Palestinian civilians in Gaza who lack food, water and medicine. (Reuters)

“13 killed including 5 children in clashes with Israeli forces in West Bank’s Nur Shams refugee camp”, informed Palestinian Health ministry, Reuters reported.

When the siren wails, Israelis have just 90 seconds to flee for safety, said Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a post on X.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will travel to Egypt on Friday, part of a trip to the Middle East where he wants to press his message that there should be no escalation of violence in the region after the Hamas attack on Gaza.

Sunak was the latest Western leader to visit Jerusalem on Thursday. (Reuters)

There’s been uptick in drone attacks targeting US bases in Syria and Iraq. So far, they have resulted in minor injuries, but prompted fresh concerns that Israel’s war with Hamas may spark a bigger conflict and pull in the US. The Pentagon is also sending more forces to the region, including fighter jets.

“We’re taking them seriously and responding appropriately,” Brigadier General Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters Thursday. “Our focus is on deterring a broader regional conflict, and right now this conflict is contained between Israel and Hamas.” (Bloomberg)

The Pentagon said it’s experiencing an increase in drone attacks on US military bases in Iraq and Syria, while an American destroyer shot down cruise missiles and drones launched by Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen that were fired toward Israel.

It’s prompted fresh concerns that Israel’s war with Hamas may spark a bigger conflict in the Middle East. The Iraq and Syria attacks resulted in minor injuries to people on the ground. (Bloomberg)

A limited number of journalists in Gaza are trying to report on the war with Israel while facing the same problems as the besieged Palestinian population there — wondering where to live, where to get food and water, and how to stay safe, AP reported.

Outside journalists have been unable to enter Gaza since the Hamas attack in Israel on Oct. 7. The sole entry point for journalists, Israel’s Erez crossing, was attacked in the rampage and remains closed. A handful of news organizations had maintained a regular presence with bureaus there, including The Associated Press, the BBC, Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Al-Jazeera, with a network of stringers helping others. (AP)

Israel evacuates northern city after clashes on Lebanon border: army. (AFP)

US President Joe Biden said on Friday that both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hamas wanted to completely “annihilate” their neighbouring democracies.

“We’ve not forgotten the mass graves, the bodies found bearing signs of torture, rape used as a weapon by the Russians, and thousands and thousands of Ukrainian children forcibly taken into Russia, stolen from their parents. It’s sick. Hamas and Putin represent different threats, but they share this in common. They both want to completely annihilate a neighbouring democracy,” Biden said.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will travel to Egypt on Friday where he will hold talks with counterparts in the region to discuss the situation in Israel and Gaza, his office said.

In the talks, Sunak will stress “the imperative of avoiding regional escalation and preventing the further unnecessary loss of civilian life”, his office said. (Reuters)

Israel has ordered the evacuation of residents of Kiryat Shmona, a northern town close to the Lebanese border, the defence ministry said on Friday.

Kiryat Shmona has a population of more that 20,000 and is some 2 km (1 mile) from the border fence. (Reuters)