Hamas and Israel at war: what we know on day 18
Hamas released two more hostages from Gaza on “humanitarian and poor health grounds”. Nurit Cooper [also known as Nurit Yitzhak], 79, and Yocheved Lifschitz, 85, who were kidnapped along with their husbands from kibbutz Nir Oz, near the Gaza border, on 7 October, are now in the care of the Israeli military, the office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said it believed Hamas was still holding 222 hostages in Gaza.
Reports from Israel suggested that the release of about 50 hostages held by Hamas could be imminent. The Tel Aviv news channel I24 reported “sources within Gaza” as saying “the finalization of a potential deal” brokered by Qatar was under way for the release of about 50 abductees who hold dual citizenship. Officials of Red Cross are believed to on their way to receive the group, I24 said, and the release could be concluded “in the hours ahead” if there are no obstacles.
The Biden administration does not believe the time is right for a ceasefire in Gaza, according to John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the national security council. Speaking to CNN, he said the US position was that all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza must be released first, echoing comments made by President Joe Biden earlier.
There were reports of an Israeli strike on Gaza’s Al-Shati camp late on Monday. “Many of the casualties are children and women who are still under rubble,” the Hamas-run health ministry said.
The ministry also said at least 5,087 Palestinians, including 2,055 children, have been killed in Israeli strikes since 7 October, with another 15,273 people wounded. The ministry put the death toll in the past 24 hours at 436, including 182 children. It said most of the fatalities had occurred in the southern Gaza Strip, to where Israel’s military has ordered Palestinians to evacuate. The claims have not been independently verified.
The White House said Iran is behind attacks by proxy on US troops in the Middle East after a barrage of drone and missile attacks over the weekend. At a media briefing on Monday, John Kirby, strategic communications coordinator for the national security council said the US was ramping up its military capabilities in the Middle East and warned Iran or other nations seeking to use the conflict as an excuse to attack US interests.
Almost 20,000 people have been internally displaced in south Lebanon and elsewhere since early October, a United Nations agency said on Monday, reflecting escalating violence on the Lebanese-Israeli border. The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said 19,646 people had been displaced inside Lebanon since it began tracking movements on 8 October, the day after the assault on Israel by Hamas militants, the AFP news agency reported.
Israel’s military said on Monday that ground forces mounted limited raids into the Gaza Strip overnight to fight Palestinian gunmen, and that airstrikes were being focused on sites where Hamas were assembling to attack any wider Israeli invasion. The IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said: “During the night there were raids by tank and infantry forces. These raids are raids that kill squads of terrorists who are preparing for our next stage in the war. These are raids that go deep.”
Washingtonhas advised Israel to delay its expected ground invasion of Gaza in order to buy time to negotiate the release of hostages held by Hamas and allow more aid in to Palestinian civilians, the New York Times reported, citing US officials.
A third convoy of aid trucks entered Gaza via the Rafah crossing from Egypt on Monday. On Saturday and Sunday 34 trucks passed through. The UN said aid arriving so far was just 4% of the daily average before the hostilities and that about 100 trucks would be needed daily to meet essential needs in Gaza.
The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, joined calls on Monday for a humanitarian pause in the conflict to let more aid supplies into Gaza.
Benjamin Netanyahuthanked the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, for his country’s support as the latter visited Tel Aviv. Netanyahu said of the conflict: “It’s a battle against civilization. It’s civilization against barbarism. We’re on the side of civilization. We have to unite, all together, against Hamas, which is Isis.”
The Palestinian prime minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, has said the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip are exposed to “the Israeli murder and criminal machine”.
A Palestinian photojournalist, Roshdi Sarraj, has been killed in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, Radio France reported. The French broadcaster said Sarraj was killed on Sunday in Israeli strikes on Tel al-Hawa, in Gaza City. His wife and one-year-old daughter were injured.
Israel’s military has claimed to have fired at a “suspicious aerial target” attempting to enter Israel from the direction of Lebanon.
A 33-year-old Dutch woman has been killed in an explosion in Gaza, the Dutch foreign ministry said. Named locally as Islam al-Ashqar, she was visiting relatives at the Nusairat refugee camp in central Gaza and was one of 22 Dutch nationals that the ministry was trying to help leave, the broadcaster NOS said.