Israel Gaza live: Freed Hamas hostage shakes hands with captor as IDF ‘ready’ to invade Gaza

A freed Israeli hostage said she has “been through hell” during the 17 days she was held captive in Gaza by Hamas following its deadly terror attack on southern Israel which left up to 1,400 dead.

Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, was “taken through ploughed fields” and hit by Hamas fighters as she was taken into Gaza by the militants.

But she added the group “looked after our needs” and fed her pitta bread, hard cheese, low fat cream cheese and cucumber.

Plumes of smoke filled the sky near Al-Amal Hospital in Kana Yunis, Gaza earlier today.

Footage published by the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) shows crowds of people running after reports of heavy bombardment in the surrounding area. Reuters have verified the location of this video.

The Palestinian health ministry have said more than 5,000 people have been killed in Gaza following two weeks of intense air strikes by Israeli forces in response to a devastating Hamas attack on southern Israel on 7 October.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel following the attack by Hamas, according to Israeli officials.

Scenes of rescuers pulling dead and wounded out of large piles of rubble from collapsed buildings were repeated in main towns of central and south Gaza on Tuesday, where Israel had told civilians to take shelter. Graphic photos and video shot by The Associated Press showed rescuers digging to unearth small bodies from the ruins.

A father knelt on the floor of the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah next to the bodies of three dead children cocooned in bloodied sheets. Later at the nearby morgue, workers prayed over 24 dead wrapped in body bags, several of them the size of small children.

Buildings collapsing on residents killed dozens at a time in several cases, witnesses said. Two families lost a total 47 members in a leveled home in Rafah, the Health Ministry said.

A strike on a four-story building in Khan Younis killed at least 32 people, including 13 members of the Saqallah family, said Ammar al-Butta, a relative who survived the airstrike. He said there were about 100 people sheltering in the building, including many who had evacuated from Gaza City.

“We thought that our area would be safe,” he said.

Another strike destroyed a bustling marketplace in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, witnesses said. AP photos showed the floor of a vegetable shop covered with blood.

The Israeli army has expanded areas of its targets in the Palestinian Gaza Strip that resulted in the killing of up to 50 people in the last hour, Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesman for the health ministry in Gaza has said.

It comes after a barrage of Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday crushed multiple residential buildings and buried families under rubble, as health officials in the besieged territory reported hundreds killed in the past day and the closure of medical facilities because of bomb damage and a lack of power.

The soaring death toll from Israel‘s escalating bombardment is unprecedented in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It augurs an even greater loss of life in Gaza once Israeli forces backed by tanks and artillery launch an expected ground offensive aimed at crushing Hamas militants.

Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been running out of food, water and medicine since Israel sealed off the territory following the devastating Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on towns in southern Israel.

The Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 704 people over the past day, mostly women and children. The AP could not independently verify the death tolls cited by Hamas, which says it tallies daily figures from hospital directors.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman held a call on Tuesday to discuss the war between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, the White House said in a statement.

They agreed on pursuing broader diplomatic efforts “to maintain stability across the region and prevent the conflict from expanding,” the White House said, adding the two leaders will remain in close coordination directly and through their teams over the coming period.

The heavier the casualties the less chance there is of securing peace, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned amid the escalating Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Speaking in Parliament, the Most Rev Justin Welby cautioned the hopes of a truce and reconciliation were set not only after a military victory but how it was achieved.

In the face of Israeli air strikes on the besieged Gaza Strip and an expected offensive into the territory aimed at crushing Hamas, Mr Welby told the House of Lords: “The hopes of peace and reconciliation are set not only after a military victory but how that victory is achieved. The more heavy the casualties the less chance there is of renewed peace.

“And Gaza has gone from level to level of violence over the last 15 years.

“That aim of war conducted is not fair. There is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas. The latter is a terrorist organisation, the former is a legitimate state, whose citizens since 1945 have written much of the laws of war. They know how to do this.”

The church leader, who has just returned from a visit to Jerusalem, said: “The innumerable deaths on October 7 and the taking of over 200 hostages has created a situation of trauma in Israel that it is hard to exaggerate.”

A Palestinian “Mandela” is needed to secure a two-state solution in the Middle East, Tory former leader Michael Howard has said.

The Conservative peer, who sits in the upper chamber as Lord Howard of Lympne, also stressed the need for an Israeli leader who backed such an arrangement, aimed at providing a lasting peace.

Lord Howard said: “Even in the midst of the most terrible darkness it is human instinct to look for hope.”

He added: “If a lasting peace is to be secured there has to be a two state solution. Of course it can’t happen now. It wasn’t going to happen before October 7. It wasn’t going to happen because Israel has a prime minister who has shown no interest in a two-state solution and alas the Palestinian Authority is led by those who lack the authority and respect of their own people. Something which is essential if an agreement is to be made to stick.

“So we need an Israeli prime minister who does believe in a two-state solution… and we need a Palestinian leader with the authority to make an agreement.

“We need a Palestinian Mandela.

“I know there will be many who dismiss this as fantasy but we must dare to hope.

“As we contemplate the bleak darkness of the current conflict let us pray that one day we will see what so many crave – a lasting peace in the Holy Land.”

The Archbishop of Canterbury has said the dignity shown by relatives of those killed in Israel by Hamas militants “is the first ray of light… in a situation of almost unredeemed darkness”.

Speaking in Parliament, the Most Rev Justin Welby, who has just returned from a visit to Jersualem, said: “The inumerable deaths on October 7 and the taking of over 200 hostages has created a situation of trauma in Israel that it is hard to exaggerate.”

Among those he met was the family of a British-Israeli soldier killed as he sought to defend against the murderous insurgent attack.

Mr Welby said: “He gave his life against overwhelming odds as wave after wave of terrorists sought to kill people in one of the kibbutzes. I wonder if the Government is considering, given he is a British citizen, what official recognition of his supreme courage can be offered.”

Referring to his meeting with relatives of those killed, the top Anglican cleric added: “There was, although huge anger, an absence of hate from those families. And that dignity that they are showing is the first ray of light… in a situation of almost unredeemed darkness.”