Image source, Reuters

The daughter of Yocheved Lifschitz, one of the hostages freed last night, has visited her mother in hospital in Israel and tells the BBC her mother "seems OK".

"The nurses are just having a chat, they say she is very sharp and is very keen to share the information, pass on the information to families of other hostages that she was with."

Sharone Lifschitz spoke as her mother slept, telling BBC Radio 4 Today presenter Mishal Husain: "I'm a bit speechless.

"I sat next to her for like an hour and then we came out and my brother is with her. Everybody is so tired. She's been through a lot."

Sharone adds: "To see my mum again is an incredible thing. To hold her hand, just to kiss her face, and her cheek, and I'm so proud of her, she's amazing."

Sharone mentions video footage from her mother's release that appears to show her briefly holding the hand of one of thehostage-takers.

"The way she walked off and then came back and then said thank you was quite incredible to me. It's so her.

"I'm just really waiting to have a bit of quality time with her."

She adds: "There are still over 200 people there and we must must must not kind of get caught only in our personal happiness but work towards the release of everybody."

You can listen to the full interview on Radio 4 Today after 08:00 this morning.

Following Hamas's release of two more hostages, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence leaders say their main goal continues to be the total elimination of Hamas.

"We are working together as an iron fist for one objective – to eliminate Hamas," Netanyahu said during a televised security briefing with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Herzi Halevi, the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which was tweeted by his office in the last few hours.

Gallant added that he had met soldiers across Israel’s ground, air and naval forces, who were all “undergoing a thorough and lengthy preparation process” to carry out their missions in Gaza.

“We want to bring Hamas to a state of full dismantling - its leaders, its military branch, and its working mechanisms” Halevi said, in a separate video tweeted by the IDF.

Every time there is a war between Israel and Hamas, support for Hamas among Palestinians grows, Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research based in Ramallah, has told the BBC.

Shikaki says that support for Hamas is usually much higher in Gaza, which is "more religious, more Islamist" than in the West Bank, which is comprised of "mostly secular nationalists" and is run by Hamas's rival Palestinian Authority.

Before the latest conflict, a survey carried out in the West Bank and Gaza Strip showed support for Hamas was at 22%, he says.

However, over the last two weeks, support for Hamas in the West Bank has "definitely" grown, he says.

Image source, REUTERS

French President Emmanuel Macron has just touched down at Ben Gurion airport in Israel, and will be meeting Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later today.

The purpose of the visit is to show France's solidarity with Israel, assist in the release of hostages still being held by Hamas, and to prevent any escalation of the current conflict, his advisers told Reuters.

Macron will also meet Israeli President Isaac Herzog, and centrist leaders Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid from the opposition during his visit.

Image source, PA

The UK foreign secretary James Cleverly has told the BBC that Hamas "has habitually brutalised and subjugated the Palestinian people for its own political ends".

"It's worth remembering that Hamas published videos of water pipes funded by the EU being torn up and turned into missiles," he said on Radio 4's PM programme.

His claim is thought to refer to a 2021 video released by the al-Qassam Brigades - Hamas's military wing - in which they appear to be digging water pipes out of the desert and turning them into missiles. The BBC has not verified this video.

Cleverly also claimed that Hamas is using "fuel which could be used for the desalination plants to turn sea water into drinkable water... is being used to send rockets into Israel".

US President Joe Biden has underscored the need for the “continuous flow” of humanitarian assistance into Gaza, in a call with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu.

Speaking with Netanyahu on Monday, Biden also welcomed the release of Nurit Cooper and Yocheved Lifschitz, two elderly women who were being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.

Biden then reiterated his commitment to Israel’s “ongoing efforts to secure the release of all the remaining hostages taken by Hamas” while calling for the safe passage of civilians out of Gaza.

Earlier on Monday, the Hamas-run Gazan health ministry said that the overall death toll in the enclave had risen to 5,087 since Israel began its response to Hamas’s cross-border attack.

The figure included 436 casualties - 182 of whom were children - who had been killed in the previous 24 hours.

Image source, Getty Images

The BBC's Fergal Keane has spoken to Sharone Lifschitz, the London-based daughter of released hostage Yocheved Lifschitz, on a flight to Tel Aviv.

This is what she told our correspondent:

Is there a red line for Western leaders?published at 05:03 British Summer Time 24 October 2023

05:03 BST 24 October 2023

Frank Gardner
BBC News, Security Correspondent

One reader, Sam, asks: Do Western governments have a red line for Israel in this conflict?

If they do then we have heard very little about it. There is also no one single unified "Western position" on this conflict in the way that there has been within Nato over the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine last year.

The sheer savagery and cruelty of Hamas's attack on civilians in southern Israel on 7 October meant that many Western leaders rushed to offer Israel their full support.

However as Israel's retaliatory air strikes have subsequently pummelled Gaza, causing appallingly high civilian casualties, there are growing misgivings among Israel's friends that the Netanyahu government is going too far.

"Don't be blinded by anger in the way we were in the US after 9/11" is the message President Biden gave Israel during his brief visit there last week.

All Western leaders have called on Israel not to breach international humanitarian law.

Yet that is exactly what UN agencies are now accusing Israel of doing as it bombs crowded areas and forces more than a million people out of their homes.

Image source, Getty Images

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Washington from Thursday to Sunday to meet US counterpart Antony Blinken as well as national security adviser Jake Sullivan, say US officials.

Officials also say they will push Beijing “to take a more constructive approach” on the “situations” in Israel and Ukraine during his visit. But it is unclear if Wang will sit down with President Joe Biden.

Ahead of his trip, Wang spoke to Israel’s foreign minister Eli Cohen over the phone late on Monday – framing the current conflict as “a major choice between war and peace”.

“All countries have the right to self-defence, but they should respect international humanitarian law and protect the safety of civilians,” Wang added, according to a Chinese readout of the call.

Wang also spoke to Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki, and called for an “effective international peace conference as soon as possible” and reiterated China’s support for a two-state solution.

His calls come amid a flurry of diplomacy by Chinese officials during this conflict. Beijing sent its Middle East envoy Zhai Jun to the region earlier this week in an attempt to broker talks.

Images filed by news agencies in the past few hours show injured people taken to Nasser Medical Hospital, in the overcrowded city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

On Telegram, Hamas channels said people in the city had been injured by multiple Israeli airstrikes and raids, and claimed a strike damaged a petrol station which caused a fire.

Israeli authorities had told 1.1 million people in northern Gaza to head south ahead of an expected ground invasion. This has prompted hundreds of thousands to seek refuge in Khan Younis, even as Israel has continued launching airstrikes on targets across Gaza including the south.

Warning: Some readers may find the following images distressing.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Hamas's attack in 7 October led to the capture of more than 200 people from Israel, who were then taken back to the Gaza Strip. Here's what we know about them:

• The Israeli army believe a total of 222 people were taken captive by Hamas
• Today, two elderly hostages, Nurit Cooper and Yocheved Lifschitz, were released by Hamas. Their husbands are still being held
• Two American-Israeli hostages, Judith Raanan and her daughter Natalie, were released last Friday
• It is believed that the captives in Gaza include young children, festival-goers, peace activists, elderly people and soldiers
• Hamas released videos of the hostages on social media platforms, such as TikTok, soon after they were kidnapped
• The militant group said it has hidden the hostages in "safe places and tunnels" within Gaza

Image source, Getty Images

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to New York City on Tuesday to take part in a United Nations Security Council ministerial meeting on the situation in the Middle East.

"While in New York, the Secretary will also meet with counterparts and UN officials," the US state department spokesman said in a statement.

Blinken may speak to journalists about the latest hostage negotiations and Israel's Gaza offensive at some point during his trip, we expect.

Last month, Blinken travelled to the UN headquarters in New York and addressed a ministerial meeting held to discuss the war in Ukraine.

Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifschitz, 85 - the two elderly hostages released by Hamas late on Monday - have arrived in Tel Aviv for medical treatment.

Hamas said it freed the women for "humanitarian" and health reasons.

Israel has thanked Egypt for its assistance in mediating their release and the Red Cross for the "important role" it played in bringing the two home.

Ms Cooper's husband Amiram, 85, and Ms Lifschitz's husband Oded, 83, are still being held by Hamas in Gaza, according to Israeli officials.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Former US President Barack Obama has penned an article in which he gives his thoughts on Israel's strategy towards dismantling Hamas and America's diplomatic efforts in the region.

He starts by saying that Biden, who served under him as his vice-president, was right to declare American "solidarity" with the Israeli people after Hamas's shocking attack.

"I fully support President Biden’s call for the United States to support our long-time ally in going after Hamas, dismantling its military capabilities," he says.

"But even as we support Israel, we should also be clear that how Israel prosecutes this fight against Hamas matters," he continues.

He notes that Hamas's leadership "seems to intentionally hide among civilians, thereby endangering the very people they claim to represent" and stresses that Israel must do everything in its power to avoid harming Palestinian civilians.

"Any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs could ultimately backfire," he says.

Obama also calls for more aid to the allowed to reach Gaza and says that Arab countries that are working to normalise relations with Israel must also work to pursue Palestinian statehood for the people of Gaza and the West Bank.

Image source, Getty Images

Now is not the right time for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, top White House and US State Department officials have said.

"We don't believe that this is the time for a ceasefire," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday.

"Israel has a right to defend themselves. They still have work to do to go after Hamas leadership."

State Department spokesman Mathew Miller added in a separate news briefing: “What we will continue to do, with respect to this question, is focus on getting humanitarian assistance in to Gaza.”

Miller added that the US envoy appointed to oversee the conflict, David Satterfield, is “working intensively to establish on-going mechanisms for the delivery of humanitarian assistance, and we're working to establish places where civilians can be safe from harm, inside Gaza.”

Image source, PA

Police will receive "clarified" guidance on hate crimes after a row broke out over the Met's handling of pro-Palestinian protests, PM Rishi Sunak has said.

Ministers have called for tougher police action over a video appearing to show a man shouting "jihad".

The word was shouted at a separate event from the weekend’s main pro-Palestinian march - which drew some 100,000 people to central London on Saturday.

In a statement explaining why no charges were filed the Met Police said the word jihad had "a number of meanings but we know the public will most commonly associate it with terrorism".

Sunak said there was "no place on our streets for that type of behaviour".

The Home Office is working "extensively to clarify the guidance to officers on the ground, so they are aware fully about the powers and tools that are available to them to make sure these people feel the force of the law", he added.

Read more here

It's almost 04:00 in Gaza and Israel. In case you're just joining us, here's what's been happening:

• Two elderly hostages, Nurit Cooper and Yocheved Lifschitz have been released by Hamas after Egyptian-Qatari mediation efforts, but their husbands are still being held, Israel said

• Yocheved Lifschitz's daughter says she is focused on securing the release of her father and the other hostages still in Gaza

• A convoy of 20 more aid trucks have entered Gaza, where food, water and fuel supplies remain critically low, according to the UN

• Fuel, however, was not included in the aid delivery, which means that the existing reserves could be exhausted within "the next two days", the UN says

• UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says the blast at Gaza's Al Ahli hospital last week was "likely" caused by a missile fired from within Gaza, according to British intelligence. Hamas blamed the incident on an Israeli strike, but Israel said a misfiring Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket from within Gaza was responsible

• He also said that the British government will give an additional £20m in aid to civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, doubling its previous commitment

• Palestinian officials said 436 people have been killed in Gaza since Sunday morning - taking the total to more than 5,000 since 7 October, they say

• Israel said it targeted Hamas infrastructure, including tunnels, with 320 targets hit in a day. More than 1,400 Israelis were killed when Hamas attacked communities near Gaza on 7 October, shooting civilians dead in their homes, in the streets and at a music festival

• China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Washington DC later this week - from Thursday to Saturday, according to senior US administration officials

• The conflicts in Israel and Ukraine will be discussed and US officials will “push the Chinese to take a more constructive approach to both” conflicts

If you are just joining us, welcome to our live coverage of the latest developments in the Israel-Gaza war.

This follows our previous page.