Macron Alights in Israel, Amid a Flurry of Diplomatic Activity and as Israel Steps Up Attacks in the Gaza District

President Macron arrived at Tel Aviv today, amid a flurry of diplomatic activity in Israel since the war started. He will be meeting with the families of French citizens who were killed or held hostage before heading to talks with top Israeli officials.The French president told Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, that he came “to express our support and solidarity and share your pain” as well as to assure Israel it is “not left alone in the war against terrorism.”Israel stepped up its bombardment of targets in the Gaza Strip, the military said Tuesday, ahead of an expected ground invasion against Hamas militants that America fears could spark a wider conflict in the region, including attacks on American troops.The stepped-up attacks, and Hamas’ claims that thousands have been killed in Gaza, come as Hamas released two elderly Israeli women who were among the hundreds of hostages it captured during its October 7 attack on towns in southern Israel.Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been running out of food, water and medicine since Israel sealed off the territory following the attack. A third small aid convoy entered Gaza on Monday carrying only a tiny fraction of the supplies aid groups say is necessary. Such aid, despite precautions, will go to Hamas, which is the government in the Gaza Strip. With Israel still barring the entry of fuel, the United Nations said that aid distribution would soon grind to a halt when it can no longer fuel trucks inside Gaza. On Tuesday, Israel said it had launched 400 airstrikes over the past day, killing Hamas commanders, hitting militants as they were preparing to launch rockets into Israel, and striking command centers and a Hamas tunnel shaft.The previous day, Israel reported 320 strikes. Israel says it does not target civilians and says Hamas militants are using them as cover for their attacks. Palestinian militants have fired more than 7,000 rockets at Israel since the start of the war, Israel said.“We continue to attack forcefully in Gaza City and its environs, where Hamas is building up its terrorist infrastructure, where Hamas is arraying its troops,” said Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman. He again told Palestinians to head south “for your personal safety.”On Monday night, the two freed hostages, 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz and 79-year-old Nurit Cooper, were taken out of Gaza at the Rafah crossing into Egypt, where they were put into ambulances, according to footage shown on Egyptian TV.The women, along with their husbands, were snatched from their homes in the kibbutz of Nir Oz near the Gaza border. Their husbands, ages 83 and 84, were not released.“While I cannot put into words the relief that she is now safe, I will remain focused on securing the release of my father and all those — some 200 innocent people — who remain hostages in Gaza,” Ms. Lifshitz’ daughter, Sharone Lifschitz, said in a statement.Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv released photos Tuesday of Ms. Lifshitz sitting in an armchair, being wheeled in a wheelchair down a hall, soldiers in tow, and kissing unidentified people.Ms. Lifschitz, an artist and academic in London who spells her name differently to her parents, told reporters last week that her parents were peace activists, and her father would drive to the Gaza border to take Palestinians to Jerusalem for medical treatment.In other developments, Israel’s internal security service, Shin Bet, released a recording showing Hamas prisoners being held by Israel sitting handcuffed in drab offices talking about the October 7 attack. Most of the prisoners were in clean prison uniforms, but one was in a bloody t-shirt and at least one was wincing in pain. The prisoners said that they were under orders to kill young men, and kidnap women, children and the elderly, and that they’d been promised financial rewards. The AP could not independently verify either video.

Macron Alights in Israel, Amid a Flurry of Diplomatic Activity and as Israel Steps Up Attacks in the Gaza District

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