Release of hostages requires ceasefire, Hamas official says

A Hamas official tied the release of hostages held in Gaza to a ceasefire in Israel's punishing air war in the enclave, launched after a deadly rampage by Hamas militants into southern Israel nearly three weeks ago.

Israel said it is preparing a ground invasion, but has been urged by the US and Arab countries to delay an operation that would multiply the number of civilian casualties in the densely populated coastal strip and might ignite a wider conflict.

Two US fighter jets struck weapons and ammunition facilities in Syria on Friday in retaliation for attacks on US forces by Iranian-backed militias since the Gaza conflict erupted.

An opinion poll published on Friday suggested almost half of Israelis wanted to hold off on a ground invasion out of fears for at least 224 hostages reported to be held there.

The Russian newspaper Kommersant quoted a member of a Hamas delegation visiting Moscow as saying time was needed to locate all those who had been taken from Israel by Palestinian factions in the Hamas attack on October 7 that sparked the crisis.

“They seized dozens of people, most of them civilians, and we need time to find them in the Gaza Strip and then release them,” Abu Hamid said.

He said Hamas, which has freed four hostages so far, had made clear since the first days of the war it intended to release “civilian prisoners”.

However, he said a “calm environment” was needed to complete this task, repeating an assertion, which Reuters could not verify, that Israeli bombing had already killed 50 of the prisoners.

Palestinian militants clashed with Israeli troops in at least two areas inside the Gaza Strip, the latest of several small-scale incursions, Hamas-affiliated media reported, though the Israeli military did not immediately confirm the sortie.

Residents of central Gaza said they had heard what sounded like an exchange of fire, heavy shelling and air strikes along the border, with Israeli planes dropping flares and bombs.

Israel said its fighter jets had struck three senior Hamas operatives who played significant roles in the October 7 attack, all commanders in the Daraj Tuffah battalion. There was no official announcement by Hamas.

In the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, an air strike killed the pregnant wife of Palestinian lawyer Jehad Al-Kafarnah.

“My life, my heart, I love you,” Kafarnah wrote, weeping, on the white sheeting wrapped around his wife's body.

He held the body of her eight-month-old stillborn child, also wrapped in white, in his arms.

As Gaza's 2.3-million civilians grow more desperate under an Israeli siege that has cut power, water and supplies of food, fuel and medicine, the issue of how to help them comes before the 193-member UN General Assembly in New York on Friday.

Unlike in the UN Security Council, where resolutions on getting aid to Gaza failed this week, no country will be able to veto the resolution submitted by Arab states calling for a ceasefire, which will not be binding but carry political weight.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said more than 600,000 Gazans have been made homeless by Israeli bombardment, at least three times more than its shelters can hold.

Ten more trucks with food and medical supplies arrived in the enclave, along with 10 foreign doctors, on Friday, the first to enter since Israel tightened its blockade on Gaza nearly three weeks ago, said a Palestinian official at Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

A UN official said earlier that about 74 trucks had crossed since the start of the conflict, making 84 altogether. The UN said Gaza needs about 100 trucks every day to meet essential needs, and the official said negotiations were taking place with Israel, which wants to prevent resources reaching Hamas, to find a faster mechanism.

Calls for restraint have been driven not only by concern for Gaza's civilians and Israeli hostages, but also by fears the crisis could ignite conflict across the Middle East.

US President Joe Biden ordered overnight strikes on two Syrian facilities used by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and militias that it backs, the Pentagon said. He earlier issued a rare direct warning to Iran on Thursday against targeting US troops in the Middle East.

US and coalition troops have been attacked at least 19 times in Iraq and in Syria by Iranian-backed forces in the past week.

The US has sent warships and fighter aircraft to the region over the past three weeks and on Thursday the Pentagon said about 900 more US troops were en route or in the Middle East to bolster air defences for UU personnel.

Israel said Hamas killed about 1,400 people, including children, in its October 7 rampage.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said on Thursday 7,028 Palestinians had been killed in the retaliatory air strikes, including 2,913 children. Reuters could not independently verify the tolls.

A poll published in the Israeli daily Maariv newspaper found 49% said “it would be better to wait” before beginning a large-scale ground offensive, while 29% disagreed. A poll a week earlier had found 65% support for a ground invasion.

“It is almost certain the developments on the matter of the hostages, which is topping the agenda, have had a great impact on this shift,” Maariv said.