Israel-Hamas war live updates: Israel does not want war with Hezbollah, president says; two more hostages released by Hamas

The United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) will be unable to carry out aid operations after Wednesday night without fuel deliveries to the Gaza Strip, Director Thomas White said.

“The key message is: we need fuel to come into Gaza otherwise the aid operation, clean drinking water, hospitals operating — will come to a close on Wednesday night,” White said in a TV interview with Al Jazeera.

“We’re providing fuel now to run desalination plants for drinking water. It’s keeping [Intensive Care] units operating in hospitals, it’s enabling us to distribute aid. The reality is even if a convoy comes into Gaza, if we don’t have fuel for our trucks, we won’t be able to pick it up,” he added, noting that no fuel has crossed the border into the Gaza Strip, despite the trickle of humanitarian aid deliveries traversing the Rafah Crossing from Egypt since the weekend.

UNRWA, which has been sheltering and distributing aid to Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza Strip, on Monday said 35 of its staff members have been killed since the start of the Israeli-Hamas conflict.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Israel does not want a war with militant group Hezbollah, but Lebanon will “pay the price” if the two countries are pitted into such an altercation, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said.

Speaking at a press briefing with visiting French President Emmanuel Macron, Herzog said, “We are following very closely the situation with Lebanon. I think Hezbollah is playing with fire … And I want to make clear, we are not looking for a confrontation in our northern border with anyone else, we are focused on destroying Hamas infrastructure and bringing our citizens back home, but if Hezbollah will drag us into war, it should be clear that Lebanon will pay the price.”

Israel has been trading fire with Hezbollah since the Oct. 7 terror attacks perpetrated by Palestinian militant group Hamas. Hezbollah cites solidarity with the Palestinian people and retaliation for Israel killing several of the group’s members. As a result of the hostilities, Israel has had to evacuate several settlements near the border with Lebanon, raising concerns over the possibility of its conflict with Hamas spreading out into the broader Middle Eastern region.

Both Hamas and Hezbollah have historically benefitted from the support of Iran, who praised the early-October Hamas offensive, but denied involvement.

“Lebanon cannot be a sovereign member of the international community, its citizens carrying a Lebanese passport, but when it comes to attacking Israel, they are not responsible,” Herzog said Tuesday.

— Ruxandra Iordache

The Israel Defense Force said it carried out a large-scale operation that struck over 400 targets of Palestinian militant group Hamas in the past 24 hours, according to a social media update.

The targets included Hamas gunmen setting up rocket fire, an operational tunnel shaft allowing infiltration of Israel through the sea, command centers and staging armament, according to the IDF.

CNBC could not independently verify developments on the ground.

The IDF is conducting an extensive campaign to dismantle Hamas military capabilities in the Gaza Strip, following the group’s multi-pronged terrorist attack of Oct. 7.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Thirty French nationals were killed in the Hamas terror attacks of Oct. 7, with nine others still missing or held hostage by the Palestinian militant group, French President Emmanuel Macron said on social media, amid a visit to Israel.

“We are bound to Israel through grief,” he said, according to a CNBC translation. “In Tel Aviv, alongside their families, I expressed the solidarity of the nation.”

Macron landed in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Reuters reported, and is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog over the course of the day.

A spate of high-profile Western politicians have journeyed to Israel to show solidarity since last week, including U.S. President Joe Biden.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Karnit Flug, former Bank of Israel governor and vice president of research at the Israel Democracy Institute, discusses what the central bank should do in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.

China urged Israel to abide by international humanitarian law and to protect the safety of civilians in its war with the Hamas militant group, calling for peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians in “major choices between war and peace.”

“Every country has the right to self-defense, but every country should abide by international humanitarian law and protect the safety of civilians,” China Foreign Minister Wang Yi was reported to have told his Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen in a call on Monday.

Read this story for more.

— Clement Tan

Former U.S. President Barack Obama has called for restraint in the Israel-Hamas war.

“The world is watching closely as events in the region unfold, and any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs could ultimately backfire,” Obama warned in a blog post.

He emphasized his support for the Jewish state and its right to protect its citizens, saying: “I fully support President Biden’s call for the United States to support our long-time ally in going after Hamas.”

“But even as we support Israel, we should also be clear that how Israel prosecutes this fight against Hamas matters,” Obama said, highlighting that Israel must abide by international rules, “including those laws that seek to avoid, to every extent possible, the death or suffering of civilian populations.”

“This is an enormously difficult task. War is always tragic, and even the most carefully planned military operations often put civilians at risk,” he acknowledged.

“The Israeli government’s decision to cut off food, water and electricity to a captive civilian population threatens not only to worsen a growing humanitarian crisis; it could further harden Palestinian attitudes for generations, erode global support for Israel, play into the hands of Israel’s enemies, and undermine long term efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region,” he warned.

— Joanna Tan

Clean water shortages remain a “major concern” in the Gaza Strip, as humanitarian aid supplies start to trickle into the besieged enclosure, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its latest update.

“The shortage of clean potable water, alongside water consumption from unsafe sources, remains a major concern,” OCHA said.

“On 23 October, the Rafah crossing with Egypt opened for the third consecutive day, allowing the entry of 20 trucks carrying food, water and medical supplies. This is equivalent to about four per cent of the daily average volume of commodities entering Gaza prior to the hostilities. None of the aid shipments have included desperately needed fuel to power hospitals and water facilities.”

Deprived of Israeli resources, the Gaza Strip began receiving humanitarian assistance over the weekend, as U.N.-brokered truck convoys entered the territory through the Rafah crossing from Egypt.

The U.N. agency drew further alarm bells over the overcrowding of hospitals in the Gaza Strip, with the Shifa facility — the largest in the area — currently treating 5,000 patients, or over seven times more than its capacity of 700 patients.

OCHA estimates there are now 1.4 million internally displaced persons in the Gaza Strip, of whom 590,000 people are taking cover in the shelters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees group.

— Ruxandra Iordache

The “cynical” Monday release of two Israeli hostages is a bid by Palestinian militant group Hamas to buy time and does not lay the foundation of a cease-fire, an Israeli spokesperson said overnight.

“Hamas is doing what we are anticipating they would do: very cynical, psychological warfare, trying to bide for time, buy time, by using the release, the slow drip release of some of the hostages,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Jonathan Conricus told NBC News in a TV interview, stressing that all of the 222 hostages abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7 must be returned.

Hamas released two hostages on Monday, bringing the combined count to four. The IDF did not play a part in negotiating the captives’ return, according to Conricus.

Asked whether Hamas’ Monday concession paved the path to a cease-fire, the IDF spokesperson said, “I am not aware of any such discussions. The only thing I am aware of is troops ready on the ground, air force striking Hamas targets from the air, and an elevated sense of understanding within the IDF that there is a tremendous task at hand that needs to be done.”

The IDF has been accruing forces at the border with the Gaza Strip enclave, in preparation for a long-anticipated ground incursion that some have begun to question whether U.S. diplomacy could deter.

“Our ground forces are ready to commence significant military operations in Gaza and to bring the fight to Hamas on their home turf, whenever we will get the directive from the war cabinet, that will commence,” Conricus said, adding there is “very close coordination, both on the military and on the strategic international level between Israel and the U.S,” specifically to prevent a spillover of the Israel-Hamas conflict into the broader Middle East.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Two Israeli women who were kidnapped and subsequently freed by Hamas, landed in Tel Aviv, Israel early Tuesday.

An Israeli military helicopter carrying Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, arrived on the rooftop of Ichilov hospital, according to Reuters footage.

One of them was seen in a wheelchair while the other was carried out on a stretcher.

The military wing of Hamas said in a statement on Telegram that the women were released for “compelling humanitarian” reasons. The Israel Defense Forces has previously said the militant group is “trying to present itself as a humanitarian organization to the world” by the release of hostages.

Hamas militants massacred 1,400 people, including babies, women and elderly, and kidnapped more than 200 people from Israel in their Oct. 7 rampage. Little is known about their well-being and whereabouts.

The militants have so far released four hostages.

— Joanna Tan

A third convoy of humanitarian aid trucks delivered water, food and medicine to the besieged Gaza Strip on Monday, but the United Nations warned that fuel was not included and reserves will run out within the next two days.

Humanitarian deliveries through the Rafah crossing from Egypt began on Saturday after wrangling over procedures for inspecting the aid and bombardments on the Gaza side of the border had left relief materials stranded in Egypt.

— Reuters

This is not the time for a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas militants, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told CNN on Monday.

“We don’t believe that this is the time for a ceasefire,” he said. “Israel has a right to defend themselves. They still have work to do to go after Hamas leadership.”

— Reuters

A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office confirmed that Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yochaved Lifshitz, 85, were released by Hamas after being taken hostage for a little over two weeks.

“After being handed over to the Israeli Defense Forces, they are making their way at this time to a medical center in Israel that was organized and specially prepared to receive them. Their family members will be waiting for them there,” Netanyahu’s office wrote in a statement.

“We thank Egypt for the assistance and the Red Cross for their important role as life savers. The Government of Israel, the IDF and the entire security establishment will continue to operate with the best of their abilities and efforts in order to locate all of the missing and return all of the abductees home,” the statement added.

— Amanda Macias