GAZA/WASHINGTON :Hamas on Monday said it had freed two Israeli women who were among the more than 200 hostages taken during its Oct. 7 rampage in southern Israel while sources said the U.S. had advised Israel to hold off on a ground assault in the Gaza Strip.
"We decided to release them for humanitarian and poor health grounds," Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas militant group, said on Telegram.
In public, the United States has stressed Israel's right to defend itself but two sources familiar with the matter said the White House, Pentagon and State Department have stepped up private appeals for caution in conversations with the Israelis. Gaza's health ministry said 436 people had been killed in bombardments over the last 24 hours, most in the south of the narrow, densely populated territory, next to which Israeli troops and tanks have massed for a possible ground invasion.
A U.S. special envoy is negotiating with Israel, Egypt and the United Nations to create a"sustained delivery mechanism" to get aid into Gaza after aid convoys began crossing into the strip from Egypt, the U.S. State Department said on Monday. In the video clips, one handcuffed Hamas man sitting beside a desk is heard describing the orders they received regarding Israeli civilians - to kill the men and bring the women, children and elderly as hostages.
The Israeli military, the Middle East's most powerful, faces a group that has built up a large arsenal with Iran's help, fighting in a crowded urban setting and using a vast tunnel network.
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