In response to Egyptian-Qatari mediation efforts, the militant Palestinian Hamas group's armed branch said on monday that it has freed two additional female civilian prisoners for medical reasons. An anonymous source informed Reuters that the prisoners were elderly Israelis. In a Telegram announcement, the armed wing's spokesperson, Abu Ubaida, stated: "We decided to release them for humanitarian and poor health grounds." The two were identified as Yocheved Lifshitz and Nurit Yitzhak.

Judith and Natalie Raanan, an American mother and daughter, were freed by the armed wing on Friday, almost two weeks after Hamas militants launched a cross-border attack on october 7 that left 1,400 people dead and over 200 captives. On monday, Israel's Channel 12 said that the families had been notified and the third and fourth prisoners had been freed. The two had entered at the Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt, according to Egypt's official news agency.

Israeli officials refrained from commenting immediately. israel bombarded hundreds of sites in Gaza on monday from the air while its forces engaged in combat with Hamas terrorists during incursions into the embattled Palestinian territory. The situation for the civilian population is horrifying, with death tolls rising.

According to Gaza's health ministry, 436 Palestinians have died as a result of shelling in the last 24 hours, the majority of them were south of the confined, heavily populated area where Israeli tanks and infantry have gathered in anticipation of a potential ground assault. Over the course of a day, the Israeli military claimed to have hit over 320 targets in Gaza, including locations for mortar and anti-tank missile launchers, dozens of command and observation stations, and a tunnel used by Hamas terrorists.

The attack on october 7, the deadliest event in a single day since the state of israel was created 75 years ago, set off the Israeli bombardment. As assistance struggles to reach Gaza's 2.3 million residents, european officials appeared to be joining the UN and Arab countries in demanding a "humanitarian pause" in hostilities.

Following the start of assistance convoys into Gaza from Egypt, a U.S. special envoy is in talks with israel, Egypt, and the UN to establish a "sustained delivery mechanism" for the supplies, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller on Monday.
For more interesting updates wa click and follow Indiaherald WhatsApp channel

Find out more:

Israel Hamas

SIBY JEYYA

24/10/2023 07:14 AM