What we’re covering
- Two American hostages, a mother and her daughter, have been released by Hamas and are with Israeli authorities, according to Israel’s prime minister. The US citizens will be reunited with family at an Israeli military base, officials said.
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised their release, and said the “urgent work” to free all American hostages — and other hostages taken by Hamas during their October 7 attack — must continue. An Israeli military official credited “military pressure” for the release of the mother and daughter.
- Conditions in Gaza are deteriorating as Israeli strikes pound the Palestinian enclave and aid agencies warn hospitals are nearly out of fuel. As a result,protests against the siege of Gaza are taking place in cities across the Middle East.
- Humanitarian aid that has been stuck in Egypt should reach Gaza within “24 to 48 hours,” US President Joe Biden said Friday. The UN has said the trucks waiting at the southern Rafah crossing will be the “difference between life and death.”
- The US and its allies have been urging Israel to set clear goals if and when it launches a ground invasion of Gaza, placing a particular emphasis on avoiding civilian casualties, US and Western officials told FunmiNews.
Caritas mourns worker and her family killed in Gaza church compound strike
An employee at Caritas, a network of Catholic charitable organizations, was killed along with her family in the Greek Orthodox church compound that officials in Gaza say was hit in an Israeli airstrike on Thursday night, according to a statement by the organization on Friday.
Caritas condemned what it described as “arbitrary and deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure” and called for a ceasefire to protect civilians and allow humanitarian aid into the strip.
The Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that 17 people were killed in the Israeli airstrike on the church compound.
CNN cannot independently confirm the number of casualties. The Israel Defense Forces on Friday acknowledged that “a wall of a church in the area was damaged” as a result of a strike.
