Judith and Natalie Raanan were released on Friday evening, the first of the hostages taken by Hamas and the Islamic Holy War during the shock attack on Israel two weeks ago. The mother and daughter were taken from Kibbutz Nahal Oz, which is located near the border with the Palestinian Gaza Strip. A spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing says the two were released for humanitarian reasons. Judith and Natalie Raanan were abducted from Kibbutz Nahal Oz when Hamas fighters attacked on 7 October. Now they have been released. Photo: AP They should be on their way to an Israeli military base, after they were first handed over to the aid organization Red Crescent and then taken care of by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), a source told Reuters. – The ICRC has contributed to this release by transporting the hostages from Gaza to Israel, thereby underpinning the neutral role we have between the warring parties, they write in a statement. Biden happy US President Joe Biden confirms the release of the two Americans. – Our countrymen have gone through horrible events in the last 14 days, and I am overjoyed that they are now reunited with their family, who have been living in fear, Biden says in a statement. He spoke on Friday with the family of the two Americans by phone. US President Joe Biden and Foreign Minister Antony Blinken during a meeting with EU leaders in the White House on Friday. Photo: Evan Vucci / AP Representatives from the US Embassy in Israel are on their way to meet the two freed hostages at the Israeli military base. US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken says, according to Reuters, that there are still 10 Americans who have not been accounted for in Gaza. – We know that some of them are being held hostage by Hamas, along with around 200 other hostages in Gaza. We demand that everyone be released immediately and without conditions, he said at a press conference on Friday. Hope more will be released French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that the release of the two American hostages means he has hope that hostages with French citizenship can also be released soon, reports Reuters. He praises Qatar for the role they have taken in the mediation. Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which confirms that it has mediated the matter, says it will continue the dialogue with Israel and Hamas with the aim of getting all the civilians who have been taken hostage released, writes Reuters. According to AFP, Hamas confirms that it is negotiating with mediators about the other civilian hostages. No emergency aid until hostages are free Heads of state, organizations and human rights groups have over the past week worked intensively to get emergency aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip, where large areas have been left in ruins after Israel began to retaliate against the attack by Hamas. Israel’s government has insisted that no emergency aid will cross the border until all the hostages are released. On Thursday, the Israeli army (IDF) updated the number of hostages to 203. There are both soldiers and civilians among those abducted. Around 30 will be children or teenagers. 160 of the hostages will be foreign nationals, the majority Americans, British and French. But a Danish citizen is also among those caught, according to Danmarks Radio. On Friday afternoon, the IDF came up with an update. They believe they know that the majority of the hostages are still alive. The IDF also claims that dead people were taken to the Gaza Strip. This information has not been confirmed by independent sources. The motorcade of UN Secretary-General António Guterres arrives at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Photo: Mohammed Asad / AP The UN chief on the border At the same time, US President Joe Biden states that the first trucks with emergency aid for the civilian population in the Gaza Strip will probably drive in within the next 24-48 hours. UN Secretary-General António Guterres appeared on Friday afternoon on the Egyptian side of Rafah, the border crossing with the Gaza Strip, in an attempt to speed up the process. – The trucks must get into Gaza as quickly as possible. There is a need for a significant number of trucks with emergency aid to enter Gaza every single day, Guterres said, according to the Reuters news agency. UN chief António Guterres at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. Photo: AMR ABDALLAH DALSH / Reuters May be allowed in during the next 24 hours On Friday morning, the UN’s humanitarian organization announced that they are in “deep and advanced” negotiations with all relevant actors to ensure emergency aid to the Palestinian civilian population as soon as possible. At the same time, an unnamed source claimed to CNN that it was highly uncertain whether the emergency aid could be transported across the border as early as Friday due to security challenges and road work. – I wouldn’t bet money on those trailers getting through on Friday, said the unnamed source to the channel. A convoy of trucks with emergency aid stands ready at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on Friday 20 October. Photo: AMR ABDALLAH DALSH / Reuters The source, who is familiar with the discussions between Egypt and the US, pointed to the necessary road work in the buffer zone on the Egyptian side. This was also confirmed by the US president when he received the EU’s top leaders in the White House on Friday evening Norwegian time. – The road in must be repaired, it is in a terribly bad condition, said Biden. In addition, there are other details that need to be resolved to ensure that the planned shipment does not become a one-off. 165 trucks waiting at the border The Rafah crossing is the only route into or out of Gaza that is not controlled by Israel. The border has been closed to both emergency aid and evacuations following Hamas’s attack on 7 October. Since then, neither food, water, medicine nor fuel has been allowed to enter the 2.3 million people, who have been under a complete blockade since 9 October. At the border crossing, 165 trucks are ready with humanitarian aid. Israel has agreed that 20 of the trucks, filled with water, food and medicine, can be allowed to drive into southern Gaza. 100 Israeli attacks last night On the night of Friday, Israeli warplanes attacked over a hundred targets in the Gaza Strip. This is according to the Israeli army. The targets were tunnel shafts, ammunition depots and command centers linked to militant Palestinians. A mosque in Jabalia north of Gaza City was also attacked. According to the IDF, the mosque was used by Hamas to store weapons. Palestinians in Gaza search for injured and dead after rocket attack. Photo: AFP Since the Hamas attack, the Israeli army has carried out thousands of airstrikes against Gaza. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the attacks have claimed 4,137 human lives so far. 1,524 of those killed are children. This week there was also an explosion at the Al Ahli Arab hospital. American intelligence estimates that between 100 and 300 lost their lives. Hamas claims 500 were killed. The number of dead has not been confirmed by independent sources and there is still controversy over who is responsible. Hamas claims this happened during an Israeli airstrike. Israel’s intelligence says it is due to a rocket from the Islamic Holy War militant group, which failed during launch. Israel has simultaneously announced a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. According to the Israeli government, the goal is to crush Hamas forever. 1,400 people were killed in the attack on 7 October, around 300 of them soldiers. Facts about the victims of the war between Israel and Hamas Since the war between Hamas and Israel broke out on 7 October, more than 7,000 people have been killed in Israel, the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. 4,137 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes against the Gaza Strip, and over 13,000 have been injured since October 7, according to Gaza’s health authorities. At least 1,524 of those killed are children and 1,000 women, according to the Palestinian authorities. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah has registered 81 killed and 1,250 wounded in the West Bank in the same period. Israel has also stated that 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed in the fighting that took place inside Israel. In Israel, over 1,400 people have been killed since Hamas attacked the country on 7 October. Among those killed are at least 306 soldiers, according to the Israeli army (IDF). Over 3,600 people were injured in the Hamas attacks. An unknown number of children are among the victims. At least 203 people were captured by Palestinian militants and taken to the Gaza Strip, according to the IDF, which says most of them are alive. Among those killed and abducted in Israel are over 160 foreign nationals, many of whom also had Israeli citizenship. The victims were from the USA, Thailand, France, Russia, Nepal, Argentina and Ukraine, among others. Source: NTB – Any escalation of Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip will be disastrous for the population there, says Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to international news agencies. Diplomacy in high gear Since Thursday, several world leaders have made the trip to Israel and Egypt. Both US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have visited Israel to express their support and sympathy for the country. But for Biden, it was also important to negotiate an agreement between Egypt and Israel to allow emergency aid to Gaza, which he could report on the flight home from the Middle East that they had agreed on. UN chief António Guterres traveled to Cairo on Thursday with the aim of opening the border between Egypt and Gaza. – Hamas must release its hostages and Israel must give Gaza unlimited access to first aid, said Guterres. He also demanded an immediate ceasefire. On Saturday there will be a summit in the Egyptian capital about the situation. A number of European and Arab presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers have announced that they will come. For Norway, Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide stands. Need 100 trucks every day Earlier this week, Israel gave 1.1 million Palestinians short deadlines to flee from north to south in Gaza. On the night of Thursday, the border town of Rafah in the south was bombed. According to the Egyptian authorities, the bombs have caused extensive damage and limited capacity on the roads in the border town, which were supposed to be used to transport emergency aid. UN emergency aid chief Martin Griffiths estimated earlier on Wednesday that around 100 trucks of emergency aid are needed a day to meet the enormous humanitarian needs in the Gaza Strip. The World Health Organization (WHO) says they are ready to deliver emergency aid.
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Emergency aid to Gaza can arrive within a day – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
