An Israeli woman touches photos of Israelis missing and held captive in Gaza, displayed on a wall in Tel Aviv, on Oct 21, 2023. (PHOTO/AP）

GAZA/JERUSALEM/BRUSSELS/UNITED NATIONS/THE HAGUE - The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) released two elderly Israeli women held hostage in Gaza on Monday, as more planes carrying humanitarian aid landed at Egypt's al-Arish Airport in North Sinai, waiting to be sent into war-torn Gaza.

As Israel's airstrikes on Gaza and its preparations for a possible ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave persisted, Lebanon's Shiite military group Hezbollah and Israel clashed more along the border, raising fears of a regional escalation of the conflict.

Also on Monday, UN General Assembly President Dennis Francis announced that he will resume the 10th Emergency Special Session of the assembly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Hostages released

Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said Monday in a statement that it has freed two more hostages for "humanitarian reasons" through "Egyptian-Qatari mediation."

It is the second time that Hamas has released some of the hostages it took on Oct 7 after releasing two American hostages on Friday.

An Israeli government official confirmed the release of the two Israelis, who arrived at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, adding that an Israeli team was on its way to meet them.

Israel's state-owned Kan TV news identified the two women as Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, and Nurit Cooper, 79. Yocheved's husband, Oded Lifshitz, an 83-year-old journalist, was kidnapped with his wife and is still being held by Hamas.

Earlier on Monday, Palestinian sources said Hamas plans to release some foreign hostages captured in Gaza following "intense mediation efforts made by Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations."

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Oct 23, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)

According to the Gaza-based Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 436 Palestinians were killed in the last 24 hours, pushing the total death toll in Gaza to at least 5,087, which includes around 2,055 children

In a briefing to reporters, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesman Daniel Hagari said the military "has been actively involved in operational and intelligence efforts to secure the release of all the hostages," while neither confirming nor denying reports on Hamas' hostage-release plan.

Hagari confirmed that the number of hostages in Gaza now stands at 222, adding they include Israelis, foreign nationals, women, children, and the elderly.

UN emergency session

In a letter to delegations, UNGA's Francis said he had received a letter dated Oct 19 from Jordanian UN ambassador Mahmoud Hmoud and Mauritanian UN ambassador Sidi Mohamed Laghdaf in their respective capacities as chair of the Arab Group and chair of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, requesting the resumption of the 10th Emergency Special Session as quickly as possible.

He said he also received a letter from the representatives of Nicaragua, Russia, Syria, as well as a letter from the representatives of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, and Brunei, related to the same matter.

"I will convene the 39th plenary meeting of the 10th Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly on Thursday, Oct 26, 2023," said Francis.

The 10th Emergency Special Session was convened for the first time in April 1997. The special session was last resumed in June 2018. 

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Palestinians unload boxes of medicine from a truck arrived at Nasser Medical Complex, as part of the aid batch that entered in to the Gaza strip from Rafah crossing Sunday, in town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Oct 23, 2023. (PHOTO/AP)

Humanitarian aid 

The latest release of two Israelis also coincided with the delivery of the third shipment of humanitarian aid into the coastal enclave through the Rafah crossing on Monday.

The Palestinian Red Crescent confirmed that it has received the third convoy of 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid containing food, water, medicines, and medical supplies.

Aid deliveries entering Gaza have not included fuel. The UN Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA, by far the largest humanitarian provider in Gaza, will exhaust its fuel reserves within the next two days, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

"No fuel means no functioning water desalination. No fuel also means that humanitarian partners will have to focus almost their entire aid delivery operation on transporting water. It also means no bakeries and no hospitals," it said.

The number of people internally displaced in Gaza is estimated at about 1.4 million, with nearly 580,000 people sheltering in 150 UNRWA-designated emergency shelters. Humanitarians warn about overcrowding, as the average number of people per shelter has reached more than 2.5 times capacity, it said.

The situation in hospitals remains dire, given shortages of electricity, medicine, equipment and specialized personnel. 

United Nations and Red Crescent workers prepare the aid for distribution to Palestinians at UNRWA warehouse in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip,  Oct 23, 2023. (PHOTO AP)

Meanwhile, planes from Algeria, Kuwait, Iraq, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, and the World Health Organization carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip arrived at Egypt's al-Arish Airport, which is less than 50 km from the Rafah crossing.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Monday that Türkiye sent two cargo planes to Egypt carrying medical equipment and supplies for the Gaza Strip, adding that two more aircraft would be sent with more supplies. The aircraft also carried a medical team of 20 doctors, he said on social media platform X.

Josep Borrell, the European Union's (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said on Monday that a  humanitarian crisis in Gaza must be avoided "as far as possible" at talks on the Israel-Hamas conflict during the EU's Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg.

"We have to avoid as far as possible a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. In order to achieve this, it is absolutely imperative that we provide humanitarian aid and that the people who need it have access to it," said Borrell.

"We have had some first convoys, but not many," he said. Before the conflict, "there were about 100 lorries a day crossing into Gaza, now it is about 20 a day and the needs are even greater now than before."

"These first convoys are a positive signal, but we have to increase the number and the speed with which the convoys go in," he added. "We have to provide medicine, food, and the ministers agreed that we also need to provide the fuel that is necessary to make the desalination plants work."

European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic (right) speaks with European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell during a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Luxembourg, Oct 23, 2023. (PHOTO/AP)

The EU and its member states will continue their intense outreach to regional partners and international actors to prevent a broader regional escalation, said the EU Council in a statement, adding that it upholds its "ultimate objective to achieve a two-state solution."

EU foreign ministers also discussed the long-term perspective for peace in the region, agreeing that it is crucial to re-energize the political process.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday underlined the importance of providing humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.

"The tragic situation in Gaza calls for humanitarian pauses to allow much-needed aid to pass through to the innocent civilians of Gaza," Rutte, who paid a one-day visit to Israel on Monday, said on social media platform X.

A wounded Palestinian man arrives at the Nasser Medical Complex, following Israeli airstrikes on town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Oct 23, 2023. (PHOTO/AP)

Air attacks

Meanwhile, Israel continued its bombardment of Gaza with hundreds of air attacks on the besieged coastal enclave. According to the Gaza-based Palestinian Health Ministry, at least 436 Palestinians were killed in the last 24 hours, pushing the total death toll in Gaza to at least 5,087, which includes around 2,055 children.

Having entered its 17th day, the conflict has also killed over 1,400 people in Israel, according to official statistics.

The Israeli military reported the killing of five commanders from Hamas' aerial array, responsible for Gaza's air defense, in addition to "dozens" of Palestinian militants.

As the airstrikes intensified, the Israeli army prepared for a potential ground offensive, deploying tens of thousands of troops and conducting training exercises.

The IDF also carried out limited ground raids in Gaza. "During the night, there were raids by tank and infantry forces," Hagari told reporters during a daily briefing on Monday, saying that the raids were carried out "deep" in Gaza.

The raids and air strikes "have been carried out as part of the preparations for the next stage of the war," Hagari added.

A young girl looks through a bus window as her family departs the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona, Israel, Oct 20, 2023. (PHOTO/AP)

On Sunday, Hamas said it destroyed an Israeli tank and two armored bulldozers and forced an Israeli force infiltrating east of Khan Younis in south Gaza to withdraw. The Israeli military also confirmed that a soldier was killed and three others were wounded by an anti-tank missile during a raid inside Gaza.

Meanwhile, more rockets were still launched from Gaza towards southern Israel, hitting an apartment in the southern Israeli city of Sderot. No injuries were reported, as most residents in the city had already been evacuated to central Israel.

Lebanese-Israeli border clash

Fighting also continued along Israel's northern border with Lebanon. Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service reported that a ten-year-old girl and a 39-year-old man sustained minor injuries on Monday when an anti-tank missile struck the backyard of a house in Kiryat Shmona, a northern city that Israel had commenced evacuating on Friday.

The Israeli military responded by launching drone and artillery attacks on two groups of fighters who were attempting to fire anti-tank missiles from Lebanon into Israeli territory.

The National News Agency reported that four Hezbollah fighters were killed and four others were injured on Monday.

NNA released several statements by Hezbollah mourning their four fighters, without providing more details.

Sources from the Lebanese Internal Security Forces told Xinhua that Hezbollah fighters were killed and injured by Israeli drones that carried out four raids, during which eight missiles were fired at dawn and noon on Monday in the town of Wadi Khansa, Kfarhamam village and the Bastra Farm in southeast Lebanon.

The sources added that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) communicated with Israel to stop bombardment and allow the Lebanese Red Cross to reach the victims and transport them to the Marjeyoun Governmental Hospital.

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The outskirts of Kfarchouba, Rashaya al-Fakhar villages, and Jabal Sadana area in southeast Lebanon, were subjected to 155-mm Israeli artillery shelling, which caused material damage, according to the sources.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah claimed that it had attacked the Misgav Am, an Israeli settlement in northern Israel, and the Al-Abad site on the border in southeast Lebanon with guided missiles and artillery shells, causing casualties, which the Shiite military group did not specify.

The border tensions have displaced more than 19,000 people in Lebanon, and the numbers are expected to rise if there is an escalation in violence, Elnashra news quoted a spokesperson at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as saying on Monday.

The majority of the displaced, according to IOM, joined their family members who reside in areas other than southern Lebanon. In contrast, others took refuge in three schools that were turned into shelter centers in Lebanon's southern city of Tyre.