Israel’s update on Gaza aid, Hamas’ hostages and rocket barrage

The Israeli military said that humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip would go only to southern areas where it has urged Palestinian civilians to congregate to avoid its fighting with Hamas.

Israeli military’s chief spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the aid shipments would not include fuel.

He gave 210 as the updated number of hostages held by Hamas since its October 7 attack on Israel, and said around a fifth of Palestinian rockets launched since Friday had fallen short within Gaza due to misfires, causing fatalities. This comes as Israel kept up heavy bombardment of targets throughout Gaza after the country’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “fight until victory” following the release of the first two hostages by Hamas.

The military said that fighter jets had struck a “large number of Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip” including command centres and combat positions inside multi-story buildings. Hamas freed Americans Judith Tai Raanan, 59, and her daughter Natalie, 17, who were among those kidnapped.

Gaza’s health ministry said that Israel’s retaliatory air and missile strikes have killed at least 4,137 Palestinians, including hundreds of children, while over a million of the territory’s 2.3 million people have been displaced.

The first emergency humanitarian aid convoy to be sent to Gaza Strip since the war erupted began moving through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt after days of diplomatic wrangling. The 20-truck convoy included life-saving supplies that would be received by the Palestinian red crescent. Hamas said the delivery included medicine and limited amounts of food but not fuel.

On hostage release, Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would not give up its effort to “return all abducted and missing people.

“At the same time, we’ll continue to fight until victory,” he saod.

While Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant said achieving Israel’s objectives would not be quick or easy.

“We will topple the Hamas organisation. We will destroy its military and governing infrastructure. It’s a phase that will not be easy. It will have a price,” he said, adding that the subsequent phase would be more drawn out, but was aimed at achieving “a completely different security situation” with no threat to Israel from Gaza.

“It’s not a day, it’s not a week, and unfortunately it’s not a month,” he said.