UN Sec Gen has visited #Egypt's #Rafah border crossing into #Gaza with a plea for aid trucks to be allowed in asap. Antonio Guterres said the lorries represented a lifeline for Gaza's suffering civilians. Mr Guterres said negotiations were continuing with Israel about the conditions for their entry. Egypt said it had opened its side of the border and wasn't preventing anything going through.

The #Israeli military says it believes most of the 200 people held #hostage in #Gaza are still alive. It’s thought the bodies of several other Israelis were taken into the enclave after the killings. The army said more than 20 of the hostages were children, while up to twenty are aged over 60. All were kidnapped in southern Israel after Palestinian militants killed more than fourteen-hundred people – most of them civilians – on 7th Oct. The attack was the worst in Israel’s 75 history.

#Hamas now says its military wing has released two of the hostages it took to #Gaza after its unprecendented attacks in #Israel. its Telegram channel said a mother and a daughter were American citizens and had been freed for humanitarian reasons -- and with the involvement of #Qatar. Some #Israeli media say that Israeli govt officials have confirmed the release, they'd probably be transferred to the care of the Red Cross who would bring them to Egypt and then Israel.

@fulelo Hamas & co will drag out negotiations, trickling out foreign citizens, young, old & wounded as a way of delaying the invasion of Gaza. Foreign countries will help Hamas delay the invasion. This has a good chance of lengthening the war & associated suffering.