Two more hostages were freed yesterday, Monday night, by Hamas, which has been called on by the United States to release all the people it kidnapped in its bloody October 7 attack on Israel before any talks on a truce begin.
"The hostages must be released, then we can talk," said US President Joe Biden yesterday.
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Tel Aviv today, where he is to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and is expected to advocate a different approach. He is in Israel to express France's "full solidarity" with that country, but will also advocate for a "humanitarian ceasefire" to allow aid to reach the people of Gaza and "facilitate the release of hostages", according to the his services.
As documented by Israel, some 220 hostages, Israelis, foreigners or dual nationals, have been taken by Hamas inside the Gaza Strip after the Islamists' deadly attack on the Jewish day of rest on Saturday. Hundreds of fighters from the Islamist Palestinian movement had infiltrated Israel from Gaza, sowing terror and death in an onslaught unprecedented since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.
More than 1.400 people were killed in Israel by Hamas Islamists, most of them civilians who were shot, caught in crossfire or mutilated on the day of the attack, authorities said.
Yesterday, Monday, Hamas announced that 5.087 Palestinians, most of them civilians, including 2.055 children, have been killed by Israeli retaliatory bombings since the beginning of the conflict.
This morning Hamas announced that at least 140 people had been killed overnight by Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, adding that there were also "hundreds of wounded" and "dozens of damaged homes".