Jerusalem, Oct 21 (AP) Israel says Hamas has freed two American hostages who had been held in Gaza since militants rampaged through southern Israel October 7. The hostage release Friday came even as Israeli airstrikes continued to hit southern Gaza, an area swelled by civilians who fled there from the north on Israeli instructions.

Israel was also evacuating a sizable town near the Lebanese border in the latest sign of a potential ground invasion of Gaza that could trigger regional turmoil.

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Palestinians in Gaza reported heavy airstrikes in the southern city of Khan Younis, where civilians had been told to seek safety amid Israel's bombardment of areas closer to the Israeli border.

The UN secretary general is at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza trying to find a way to get badly needed aid into the enclave.

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The war, which is in its 14th day on Friday, is the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Friday that 4,137 Palestinians have been killed and more than 13,000 others wounded.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly in the initial attack on Oct. 7 when Hamas militants stormed into Israel. In addition, 203 people were believed captured by Hamas during the incursion and taken into Gaza, the Israeli military has said.

Currently:

1. Israel says Hamas has released two US hostages who had been held in Gaza for two weeks.

2. US President Joe Biden meets with European leaders to assure them the US can deliver wartime aid to Ukraine and Israel.

3. Israel says it wants to eradicate Hamas and other resistance fighters in Gaza Strip but doesn't plan to take responsibility for the besieged region after the war.

4. Thousands have been displaced from Lebanese border towns.

5. Demonstrations have erupted in cities worldwide to protest the war.

Here's what's happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:

ISRAELI PM SAYS EFFORT CONTINUES TO BRING ALL HOSTAGES HOME

Israel says it continues to push for the release of civilians taken hostage by Hamas during a raid on southern Israel almost two weeks ago.

Hamas militants took more than 200 hostages during its October 7 raid. Hamas released two of those hostages, a woman and her teenage daughter from the United States, on Friday.

“Two of our abducted are home,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. “We are not giving up the effort to bring all of the hostages and missing people home. At the same time, we are continuing to fight until victory.”

UN CHIEF WORKS TO REOPEN RAFAH CROSSING AND ENSURE SUFFICIENT FUEL FOR AID DELIVERIES

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is working with Egypt, Israel, the United States and others to ease an impasse that is preventing aid from entering Gaza.

The UN chief's priority is to make sure humanitarian aid deliveries are sustained, “with a meaningful number of trucks approved each day to cross” from Egypt into Gaza at the Rafah crossing, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters Friday. And the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, must have sufficient fuel to distribute humanitarian aid, Haq said.

“It's no use dropping off aid to the other side and then leaving it there because their trucks simply don't have enough fuel to give it to the people who need it,” he said.

The secretary-general has repeatedly called for a humanitarian ceasefire, Haq said, “but he doesn't want the humanitarian ceasefire to be a condition for allowing the aid in.”

Guterres also wants “the role of the Egyptian Red Crescent and other Egyptian institutions to be recognized,” Haq said.

BLINKEN SAYS US PUSHING HARD FOR OTHER HOSTAGES' FREEDOM

Washington: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said he welcomes the release of the two hostages and shared in the families' relief but noted there are many more captives, including children and elderly people.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Blinken said he and President Joe Biden had been able to speak with the families of some of the hostages during their trips to the Middle East.

“It's impossible to adequately put into words the agony that they're feeling,” Blinken said. “No family anywhere should have to experience this torture.”

Of the remaining hostages, he added: “The entire United States government will work every minute of every day to secure their release and bring their loved ones home.”

Blinken also thanked the Qataris for their work in securing the hostages' release.

US PRESIDENT CELEBRATES RELEASE OF 2 AMERICANS TAKEN HOSTAGE BY HAMAS

Washington: President Joe Biden is celebrating the release of a Chicago-area woman and her teenage daughter who had been visiting Israel when they were taken hostage by Hamas militants October 7.

The Israeli military said Judith Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter Natalie, were released to the Israeli military Friday. Hamas said the Qatari government was instrumental in securing their release.

“Our fellow citizens have endured a terrible ordeal these past 14 days, and I am overjoyed that they will soon be reunited with their family, who has been wracked with fear,” Biden said in a statement.

Thanking the governments of Qatar and Israel for their help, Biden said the White House had been “working around-the-clock” to secure the release of American hostages “and we have not ceased our efforts to secure the release of those who are still being held.”

ISRAEL SAYS HAMAS HAS RELEASED TWO US HOSTAGES

Jerusalem: Hamas militants on Friday freed two Americans, a mother and her teenage daughter, who had been held hostage in Gaza since militants rampaged through Israel two weeks ago, the Israeli government said.

The pair, who also hold Israeli citizenship, were the first hostages to be released. More than 200 are still being held.

The two Americans, Judith Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter Natalie, were out of the Gaza Strip and in the hands of the Israeli military, an army spokesman said. Hamas said it was releasing them in an agreement with the Qatari government for humanitarian reasons.

Judith and Natalie Ranaan had been on a trip to southern Israel from their home in suburban Chicago to celebrate a Jewish holiday, family said. They had been staying at the kibbutz of Nahal Oz, near Gaza, when Hamas fighters took them and more than 200 others hostage.

Relatives of other captives welcomed the release and appealed for others to be freed.

“We call on world leaders and the international community to exert their full power in order to act for the release of all the hostages and missing,' the statement said.

DOZENS KILLED IN GAZA AIRSTRIKES MOURNED

Deir Al-Balah (Gaza Strip) Funeral goers on Friday mourned the deaths of 40 people killed by air strikes in the Gaza Strip.

The dead included 22 members of two families in Deir al-Balah, and 18 displaced Palestinians who had taken shelter in a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City.

A distraught woman screamed in anguish outside the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Other women sat on a curb and stroked the feet of some of the bodies laid out on the ground covered in white sheets.

The sheets were pulled back to reveal the faces of two children. Two men knelt at their heads and caressed their faces.

Outside the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City, the Orthodox patriarch swung a burner of smoldering incense as he walked around 18 bodies, including four children, killed when an airstrike toppled a church wall.

Clergy prayed and sang during the service attended by dozens in a courtyard behind the church.

HAMAS SAYS IT IS RELEASING TWO U.S. HOSTAGES HELD IN GAZA SINCE OCT 7

Jerusalem: Hamas said Friday it was releasing two American citizens they were holding captive in Gaza since their October 7 raid on Israel.

The Palestinian militant group said in a statement that in an agreement with the Qatari government it was freeing a mother and daughter for humanitarian reasons.

US and Israeli officials did not immediately comment on the statement.

Israel says Hamas has taken 203 people from Israel into Gaza.

TWO PALESTINIAN TEENS KILLED IN WEST BANK CLASHES

Jerusalem: Two Palestinian teenagers were killed Friday in the West Bank, Palestinian health officials said, raising the death toll in the territory to 83 since the start of the latest Israel-Hamas war.

One, identified as 15-year-old Suhaib al-Sous, died after clashes with Israeli forces near Ramallah. The other, 17-year-old Oday Mansour, was killed in clashes at a military checkpoint near Hawara, a flashpoint town in the northern West Bank.

The West Bank has seethed with tension since the start of the war, with Israel raiding towns across the territory to root out militants and clashes erupting between Israeli forces and Palestinian protesters in major cities.

GUNFIRE, CHANTS PUNCTUATE FUNERAL FOR 13 IN WEST BANK

Tulkarem (West Bank): Militants carried rifles and shots rang out Friday during a funeral in the West Bank for 13 people killed in a battle with Israeli troops in the Nur Shams refugee camp.

Some of the bodies carried through the streets of Tulkarem were draped in the flags of the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad militant groups.

Chants of “There is no God but Allah, and the martyrs are the beloved ones of Allah,” were punctuated by the crack of gunshots.

Five of the Palestinians killed were minors, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

An Israeli border police officer was also killed in the fighting, Israeli authorities said.

BIDEN SEEKS USD 14.3B FOR MILTARY ASSISTANCE TO ISRAEL

Washington: US President Joe Biden wants USD 14.3 billion to support Israel in its war with Hamas, the White House announced Friday. The money is part of a supplemental funding request that totals more than USD 105 billion, including Ukraine, border security and more.

The White House said the assistance for Israel would be geared toward air and missile defense systems.

There's also USD 9.15 billion for humanitarian aid, which would be split among Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and other hotspots. Administration officials said the money can be directed to where it's most needed.

All of the funding requires approval from Congress.

EGYPT SAYS ISRAEL IS RESPONSIBLE FOR CLOSURE OF RAFAH CROSSING

Cairo: Egypt's Foreign Ministry has accused Western media of unfairly holding it responsible for closing the Rafah border crossing.

In a brief statement on X, formerly Twitter, the ministry's spokesperson accused Israel of attacking the crossing at Rafah and refusing to allow aid to enter Gaza.

Spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid also denied Israeli claims that Egypt has stopped foreign nationals from leaving Gaza.

“Rafah crossing is open and Egypt is not responsible for obstructing third-country nationals' exit,” he said.

Egypt has repeatedly said it did not close the crossing at Rafah, saying instead that it is not functioning because of damage inflicted by Israeli airstrikes.

FRENCH PRESIDENT MEETS WITH FAMILIES OF HAMAS HOSTAGES

Paris: President Emmanuel Macron on Friday chatted with families of French hostages captured by Hamas militants in their October 7 surprise attack on Israel.

A day earlier, the Foreign Ministry said 28 French citizens were killed during the Hamas attacks in southern Israel, while seven French people remained missing. The ministry also confirmed for the first time that at least some of those were “hostages of Hamas.”

Macron said on X, formerly Twitter, that he told the families via video that “France does not abandon its own.”

“We are doing all we can to obtain the liberation and the return of our compatriots,” he said.

SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW IMPACT OF AIRSTRIKES ON GAZA

The misery of life in Gaza can be seen from space.

The destruction and impact from Israeli airstrikes in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants is visible in satellite imagery of blocks leveled by missiles and smoke rising over the blast zones.

Images by Maxar Technologies showed people sheltering in the courtyards at two schools in Gaza City and one in Deir al Balah on Thursday.

A tractor appeared to be overturning fresh soil to make way for new graves as the Marzouq Street cemetery expands in Gaza City.

An overview of Shifa Hospital showed where tents were set up in what used to be a grassy, tree-covered area next to the hospital. Some hospitals have set up tents to treat the wounded and temporarily house the dead.

Along a stretch of road near the beach, a series of round craters marked the spots where airstrikes hit the dirt and didn't flatten homes. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)