Israel says Hamas has freed two American hostages who had been held in Gaza since militants rampaged through southern Israel . 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.
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.
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.
Here's what's happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:
BIDEN THINKS HAMAS ATTACK LINKED TO EFFORTS ON ISRAEL-SAUDI RELATIONS
WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden said he thinks Hamas' initial attack on Israel was tied in part to efforts to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, an initiative that Biden was trying to bring to fruition.
"They knew that I was about to sit down with the Saudis," the U.S. president said Friday, speaking at a fundraiser.
IRAN-BACKED MILITIAS IN IRAQ WARN U.S. FORCES TO LEAVE OR FACE MORE ATTACKS
BAGHDAD -- A group of Iranian-backed militias in Iraq said U.S. forces "must leave immediately" or their bases in Iraq and elsewhere in the region will continue to come under attack.
Militant groups have launched rocket and drone attacks in recent days against U.S. bases in Iraq and Syria, most of which were claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq. The group has said the attacks are retaliation for Washington's support of Israel and a warning not to intervene in the Israel-Hamas war.
"These are only warning messages to them, and serious work has not yet begun," the militias said in a statement.
The statement concluded by saying that if Israel launches a ground invasion into Gaza, "watch the border with Jordan carefully." It did not elaborate.
EGYPT OFFICIAL SAYS AID TRUCKS ENTERED RAFAH CROSSING BUT HAVEN'T PASSED INTO GAZA STRIP
CAIRO -- An Egypt official said two aid-packed trucks entered the Egyptian side of the border crossing early Saturday, but that they have not passed through into the Gaza Strip.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not briefed to speak with the media.
Israel announced Wednesday that aid would be allowed into Gaza from Egypt, via the Rafah crossing, but the border into the besieged territory has remained closed. Egypt says the crossing has been damaged by Israeli air strikes.
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Associated Press reporter Ashraf Sweilam in el-Arish, Egypt, contributed.
FRENCH PRESIDENT HOPES RELEASE OF U.S. HOSTAGES LEADS TO FREEDOM FOR OTHERS
PARIS -- French President Emmanuel Macron said the release of two Americans who were held hostage in Gaza is "a very good result" and expressed hope it could help pave the way for others to be freed, including French-Israelis.
So far, France has one confirmed hostage, 21-year-old Mia Schem, who was shown dazed and injured in a video that Hamas' military wing released Monday.
Six other French citizens also are missing and Macron said Friday that they're presumed to be hostages "but without certainty."
French contacts with Israeli authorities and other contacts via Qatar "keep up our hope that we will be able to find solutions to get the maximum number of hostages out," he said. "We are confident: the channels we have are the good ones and are useful," he said.
Macron said he is still weighing the possibility of travelling to the Middle East but that it would be dependent on more talks with leaders in the region.
He also announced 10 million euros (US$10.6 million) in additional humanitarian aid for Palestinians and said urgent aid, including medicines, will be airfreighted to Egypt.
NOBEL LAUREATES' PETITION URGES HAMAS TO FREE CHILD HOSTAGES
UNITED NATIONS -- A petition signed by 86 Nobel peace laureates demands that Hamas release all children taken hostage, saying holding them in captivity "constitutes a war crime, a grievous offence against humanity itself."
The petition noted that the Geneva Convention on safeguarding civilians in war mentions children 19 times, stressing that the "current plight of the kidnapped children far exceeds any scenario envisioned by the accord."
"Children should never be regarded as pawns in the theatre of war," it said. "It is our sacred duty to protect the innocent and shield the vulnerable."
FRANCE SAYS GAZA HOSPITAL BLAST LIKELY CAUSED BY MISFIRED PALESTINIAN ROCKET
PARIS -- French military intelligence assesses that the most probable hypothesis for the explosion at Gaza City's al-Ahli Hospital was that it was caused by a Palestinian rocket that was carrying an explosive charge of about five kilograms (11 pounds) that possibly misfired.
Several rockets in the arsenal of Palestinian militant group Hamas carry explosive charges of about that weight, include an Iranian-made rocket and another that is Palestinian-made, said a senior French military intelligence official.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence assessment, cleared to do so by President Emmanuel Macron in what was described as an attempt to be transparent about the French findings.
The official said none of their intelligence points to an Israeli strike.
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Associated Press writer John Leicester contributed from Paris.
U.S. MAN HAILS THE RELEASE OF HIS DAUGHTER, GRANDDAUGHTER WHO WERE HELD BY HAMAS
CHICAGO -- A man whose Chicago-area daughter and granddaughter were abducted by Hamas in southern Israel says he has spoken to his daughter since her release and that he believes she will be home soon.
"She's doing good. She's doing very good," Uri Raanan, who is based in the Chicago suburb of Bannockburn, said Friday. "I'm in tears, and I feel very, very good."
The 71-year-old said he saw on the news Friday that Hamas was releasing an American mother and daughter, and he spent the day hoping they meant his daughter, Judith Raanan, and his granddaughter, 17-year-old Natalie, who live in Evanston.
He said he believes Natalie and Judith are on their way to Tel Aviv to reunite with relatives before returning to the U.S., meaning Natalie will be able to celebrate her 18th birthday next week with family and friends.
ISRAELI PM SAYS EFFORT CONTINUES TO BRING ALL HOSTAGES HOME
TEL AVIV -- 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 Oct. 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
UNITED NATIONS -- 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 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, UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters Friday. And the UN 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.
BLINKEN SAYS U.S. PUSHING HARD FOR OTHER HOSTAGES' FREEDOM
WASHINGTON -- U.S. 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.
U.S. 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 Oct. 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 U.S. 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 Oct. 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.
U.S. 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.
TURKIYE'S PRESIDENT URGES ISRAEL TO HALT ATTACKS IN GAZA
ANKARA, Turkiye -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged Israel to end its operations in Gaza that he said were "bordering on genocide."
In a statement posted Friday on X, formerly Twitter, Erdogan said the increasing attacks on Gaza would bring "nothing but more pain, death and tears."
"It is clear that security cannot be ensured by bombing hospitals, schools, mosques and churches," Erdogan said. "I reiterate our call on the Israeli government not to expand the scope of its attacks against civilians and to immediately stop its operations that are bordering genocide."
BIDEN SEEKS US$14.3B FOR MILTARY ASSISTANCE TO ISRAEL
WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Joe Biden wants US$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 US$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 US$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 Oct. 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 levelled by missiles and smoke rising over the blast zones -- and also in more subtle photos.
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.
HOSPITALS OPERATE ON LOWEST SETTING AS RESOURCES DEPLETE
The director of Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, says generators in the hospital are operating at the lowest setting to provide power to vital departments that cannot function without electricity, while others work in darkness.
The hospital is prioritizing intensive care, nursery, dialysis, oxygen generation, obstetrics and gynecology, heart care and the blood bank, Mohammed Abu Selmia said.
"I don't know how long it will last. Every day we evaluate the situation," he said.
The numbers of wounded coming to the hospital is so high it's difficult to identify them, he said. Water is scarce, and patients with chronic diseases and cancer are suffering.
Asked what medical supplies were needed most, he said all medicines related to emergency care, intensive care and operations, obstetrics and gynecology and dialysis medications. Doctors can't treat patients without these supplies, he said. "We cannot function without it."
AID GROUP CARITAS SAYS A LOCAL EMPLOYEE KILLED IN GAZA
Aid organization Caritas International says a local employee was killed in an explosion at a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza, where she and her family had sought shelter.
Caritas didn't release the name of the woman, an employee of Caritas Jerusalem. It said in a statement Friday that she, her family and four other Caritas employees had sought shelter on the grounds of the Church of Saint Porphyrios.
Palestinian authorities blamed the blast late Thursday on an Israeli airstrike, a claim that couldn't be independently verified.
NO PLANS FOR ISRAEL TO CONTROL LIFE IN GAZA, MINISTER SAYS
Israel's defense minister said Friday that after the country destroys the Hamas militant group, the military does not plan to control "life in the Gaza Strip"
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant's comments to lawmakers were the first time an Israeli leader discussed its long-term plans for Gaza.
Gallant said Israel expected there to be three phases to its war with Hamas. He said it first would attack the group in Gaza with airstrikes and ground maneuvers, then it would defeat pockets of resistance and finally it would cease its "responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip."
UN SECRETARY GENERAL ARRIVES AT RAFAH CROSSING
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres arrived at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip Friday and called on all international parties to work together to ensure humanitarian aid reaches Palestinians in besieged Gaza
Speaking to the media in front of the border crossing, he said the lorries packed with vital aid were a "lifeline" for Palestinians in Gaza, "the difference between life and death," and needed to be moved into the enclave as quickly as possible.
Guterres pointed out that the deal reached between Egypt and Israel to allow aid to flow into the Gaza Strip has some conditions and restrictions.
"We are actively engaging with Egypt, Israel and the United States in order to make sure that we can clarify those conditions and limit those restrictions in order to have these trucks headed to where they are needed," he said. He did not provide a timeframe as to when the trucks of aid would enter Gaza.
The UN chief also reiterated his call for a cease-fire between the warring parties.
GULF AND ASIAN NATIONS END SUMMIT WITH CALL FOR CEASEFIRE
Arab Gulf and southeast Asian nations are calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza.
The final statement of a summit hosted by Saudi Arabia on Friday also condemns "all attacks against civilians."
The joint summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations brought together 16 member states.
Saudi Arabia, which has launched a number of diplomatic initiatives across the Middle East over the past year, has called for a halt to the fighting.
Before the outbreak of the war, the kingdom had been in talks with the United States on normalizing relations with Israel in exchange for a U.S. defence pact, help in establishing a civilian nuclear program and unspecified concessions to the Palestinians.
UN SAYS PALESTINIANS ARE RETURNING HOME
A spokesperson for the UN human rights office says there are new signs that some Palestinians who initially moved south in response to the Israeli order to evacuate are returning to their homes because Israeli strikes are taking place in the south, too.
"We remain very concerned that Israeli Forces' heavy strikes are continuing across Gaza, including in the south," Ravina Shamdasani told reporters. "The strikes, coupled with extremely difficult living conditions in the south, appear to have pushed some to return to the north, despite the continuing heavy bombing there."
Shamdasani said the rights office had heard accounts about people wanting to migrate back north, including from one unidentified Palestinian who said "I might as well die in my own house."
SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW CONVOY OF AID TRUCKS WAITING TO CROSS INTO GAZA
Satellite photos analyzed Friday by The Associated Press show a massive convoy of semitruck trailers lined up at the Rafah border crossing on the Egyptian side, likely waiting for approval to cross into the besieged Gaza Strip as the Israel-Hamas war rages.
The images, shot Thursday by Planet Labs PBC, show 55 trucks waiting in two lines, just half a kilometre (a third of a mile) away from the border. There are over 50 smaller vehicles visible in the image as well, many appearing to be with aid organizations, waiting at the crossing.
The Gaza Strip, home to over 2 million Palestinians, has been cut off from food, water, fuel and electricity by Israel since Hamas' Oct. 7 surprise attack. There have been days of high-level negotiations over aid getting into the besieged seaside enclave, including officials all the way up to U.S. President Joe Biden.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has arrived in northern Sinai as the world body works on getting aid through, said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The deal to get aid into Gaza through Rafah, the territory's only crossing not controlled by Israel, remains fragile. Israel said the supplies could only go to civilians and that it would "thwart" any diversions by Hamas. More than 200 trucks and some 3,000 tons of aid were positioned at or near Rafah.
Work began Friday to repair the road at the crossing that had been damaged in airstrikes, with trucks unloading gravel and bulldozers and other road repair equipment filling in large craters.
BODIES OF 8 THAIS KILLED IN HAMAS ATTACK ARRIVE IN BANGKOK
The bodies of eight Thai nationals who were killed in the Hamas attack on southern Israel arrived at a Bangkok airport Friday as repatriation efforts continued for thousands of Thai workers.
Ahead of the first repatriation of the Thai dead, Thai and Israeli officials laid wreaths at a small memorial ceremony on Thursday at Tel Aviv's airport. Thailand's Foreign Affairs Ministry said Thursday that 30 Thais are feared dead, while 16 are reportedly injured and 17 are believed to have been abducted.
About 30,000 Thai workers are in Israel, mostly agricultural labourers, and about 5,000 were working in the area attacked. Two evacuation flights on Friday brought more than 500 Thais back to the country, with more flights set to arrive daily. Officials say more than 8,000 of the Thais remaining in Israel have expressed their wish to return home.
BIDEN REFERENCES BOY'S KILLING TO DENOUNCE ANTISEMITISM AND ISLAMOPHOBIA
President Joe Biden referenced the killing of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in Illinois to deliver a forceful denunciation of antisemitism and Islamophobia.
Biden brought up the case of Wadea Al-Fayoume during a televised nighttime address from the Oval Office. Authorities say the boy, who was Muslim, was stabbed 26 times Saturday by his landlord in response to escalating rhetoric about the Israel-Hamas war. Wadea's mother was critically wounded.
Biden said it's difficult to "stand by and stand silent when this happens," adding that "we must without equivocation denounce" antisemitism and Islamophobia.
The White House said that after the speech, Biden and his wife, Jill, spoke with Wadea's father and uncle to offer condolences along with prayers for his mother's recovery.
BIDEN CALLS FOR MORE AID FOR ISRAEL AND UKRAINE
President Joe Biden is urging support for additional U.S. aid for Ukraine and Israel, saying in a televised address from the Oval Office that "American leadership is what holds the world together."
Biden spoke hours after returning to Washington from an urgent visit to Israel to show U.S. support in the wake of a deadly attack by Hamas on Oct. 7. Some 1,400 civilians were killed and roughly 200 others, including Americans, were taken to Gaza as hostages. Israel has responded with airstrikes, and 3,785 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The U.S. president argued that Israel needs help to defend itself from Hamas. He also said the U.S. must help Ukraine stop the advances of Russian President Vladimir Putin to keep other "would-be aggressors" from trying to take over other countries.
Biden said he will send lawmakers an "urgent budget request" Friday to fund U.S. national security needs. He called the request, said to carry a price tag of about US$100 billion, a "smart investment" that will pay dividends for decades to come.
EMHOFF MEETS U.S. SURVIVOR OF HAMAS ATTACK
Douglas Emhoff, the husband of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, met in Washington with Natalie Sanandaji, a 28-year-old American survivor of Hamas' Oct. 7 attacks in Israel.
Sanandaji recounted the attack on a music festival, where some 260 people were killed, a White House official said.
Emhoff, who is Jewish and has been outspoken about and against antisemitism, spoke to Sanandaji about President Joe Biden and Harris' support for Israel, providing humanitarian aid to civilians and the administration's work to combat hate of all kinds, the official said.
EXPLOSION AT GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH CAUSES DEATHS, GAZA AUTHORITIES SAY
An explosion struck a Greek Orthodox church housing displaced Palestinians late Thursday, resulting in deaths and dozens of wounded.
Mohammed Abu Selmia, director general of Shifa Hospital, said dozens were hurt at the Church of Saint Porphyrios but could not give a precise death toll because bodies were still under the rubble.
Palestinian authorities blamed the blast on an Israeli airstrike, a claim that could not be independently verified.
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchy of Jerusalem issued a statement condemning the attack and said it would "not abandon its religious and humanitarian duty" to provide assistance.
A survivor told Qatar's Al Jazeera Arabic television that there was no warning from the Israeli military beforehand.
In Athens, Greece's Foreign Ministry expressed "deep sorrow over the loss of lives caused by a strike on a building adjacent to the monastery of Saint Porphyrios in Gaza." The ministry's statement said civilians must be protected and religious institutions safeguarded by all sides.
Named after the Bishop of Gaza from 395 to 420, St. Porphyrios is located in the al-Zaytun section of Gaza's Old City. Its thick limestone walls house an elaborate interior of gilded icons and ceiling paintings.
It became a mosque in the 7th century before a new church was built in the 12th century during the Crusades.
ISRAEL SAYS ALMOST 30 CHILDREN AMONG HOSTAGES TAKEN BY HAMAS
Nearly 30 of some 200 hostages held by Hamas in Gaza are children, the Israeli military said.
More than 10 are over the age of 60, it said in a statement.
Authorities have no information about the location of more than 100 missing Israelis, it added.
U.S. INTELLIGENCE ESTIMATES 100 TO 300 DIED IN HOSPITAL BLAST
An unclassified U.S. intelligence assessment delivered to Congress estimates casualties in an explosion at a Gaza City hospital on the "low end" of 100 to 300 deaths.
That death toll "still reflects a staggering loss of life," U.S. intelligence officials said in the findings, which were seen by The Associated Press. Officials were still assessing the evidence, and the estimate may evolve.
The explosion at Gaza's al-Ahli hospital on Tuesday left body parts strewn on the hospital grounds, where crowds of Palestinians had clustered in hopes of escaping Israeli airstrikes.
Officials in Hamas-ruled Gaza quickly said an Israeli airstrike had hit the hospital. Israel denied it was involved. The Associated Press has not independently verified any of the claims or evidence released by the parties.
President Joe Biden and other U.S. officials already have said that U.S. intelligence officials believed the explosion was not caused by an Israeli airstrike. Thursday's findings echoed that.
The U.S. assessment noted "only light structural damage" to the hospital itself was evident, with no impact crater visible.
Correction:
This version has corrected that Israel said Thursday the number of suspected captives is 203, not 206.
