October 24, 2023 - Israel-Hamas war news

Yocheved Lifshitz, who was released by Hamas on Monday, told reporters on Tuesday that she "went through hell" in Gaza.

Lifshitz, an 85-year-old grandmother, was held captive in Gaza for more than two weeks before being released and returned to Israel late Monday evening.

"It was difficult, but we will get through this," she said, recounting her experience to journalists outside Tel Aviv's Sourasky Medical Center. 

Speaking in Hebrew, and sitting alongside her daughter who translated, Lifshitz described how she was captured by Hamas gunmen during their brutal terror attack on Israel on October 7.

Lifshitz's daughter explained that her mother was brought down into a "huge network" of spider web-like tunnels where she was held.

Yocheved Lifshitz, an 85-year-old grandmother, who was held captive in Gaza for more than two weeks is holding a news conference in Tel Aviv.

The daughter of released hostage Yocheved Lifshitz told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that her mother “wants to tell everybody what she knows” after she was returned to Israel on Monday evening.

Lifshitz, an 85-year-old grandmother, was held in Gaza for more than two weeks after she was snatched by Hamas militants from her home in kibbutz Nir Oz.

Hamas released Lifshitz and her neighbor and friend Nurit Cooper, 79, on Monday, and later they were reunited with family members who rushed to their bedside at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.

Asked whether she was held with other people in Gaza, Lifshitz's daughter replied, “Yes, so she was with other people. There was medical care to some extent.”

She also added there were children among the hostages.

The Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said the United States sent Iran two messages regarding escalation in the region.

Amir-Abdollahian did not disclose how and when the messages were delivered.

The Iranian foreign minister called out US President Biden over what he said was the “hypocrisy” of the US position regarding human rights in Gaza. He asked if “the death of more than 5,000 civilians, women and children, more than 20,000 wounded and hundreds of thousands homeless, is the result of the human rights that Mr. Biden was talking about?”

Some context: As Israel prepares for an expected ground incursion into Gaza, there has been a flurry of diplomatic efforts to prevent Israel's war against Hamas from escalating into a wider regional conflict.

Since Hamas' October 7 attack, there has been consistent crossfire on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, as the Israel Defense Forces clash with Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Islamist movement that has its main base on the Israel-Lebanon border.

CNN reported Monday that the US has intelligence that Iranian-backed militia groups are planning to ramp up attacks against US forces in the Middle East, as Iran seeks to capitalize on the backlash in the region against US support for Israel, according to multiple US officials.

Read more here.

Lebanon cannot claim innocence when Israel is attacked by Hezbollah, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron Tuesday. 

“It should be clear that Lebanon will pay the price,” if war breaks out with Hezbollah, he said.

Hezbollah is “playing with fire,” he added.

“We are not looking for a confrontation on our northern border or with anyone else,” Herzog said.

France has “passed messages” to other groups “potentially wanting to join the conflict” to warn them against doing so, Macron said.

Herzog also said that "30 children are out there" having been kidnapped by Hamas militants.

There has been an increase in skirmishes between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Islamist movement that has its main base on the Israel-Lebanon border. On Monday, Lebanon's minister of information said the government "does not want war" with Israel, but that threats from Israel have become a "constant occurrence."

Nine French citizens are “missing or held hostage” following the Hamas attacks on Israel, French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday on X, formerly Twitter, after meeting with relatives of dead and missing French citizens in Israel.

“We are tied to Israel by grief,” Macron, who arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning, said on X.

Upon his arrival, Macron met with 30 relatives of 18 French citizens killed or missing since the Hamas attack on October 7, including the family of Mia Schem, a 21-year-old French-Israeli woman who was shown on a video released by Hamas last week.

Macron also met Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem.

The French leader made a strong call for the release of all Israeli hostages "without any distinction," calling it an "awful crime to play with the lives of children, adults, all people."

Herzog thanked Macron for his visit, calling it a "clear expression of solidarity" during "trying times" for Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday morning it had bombed more than 400 “terror targets,” killing “several Hamas commanders and numerous operatives” in the past day.

The IDF said it had struck “dozens of Hamas gunmen” preparing to fire rockets or carry out terror attacks, and killed the deputy commanders of three Hamas battalions. 

The IDF has been bombing Gaza relentlessly since Hamas launched a brutal surprise attack against Israel on October 7, killing more than 1,400 people and seizing more than 200 hostages.

Since then, more than 5,000 people have been killed in Israel’s bombing of Gaza, the Palestinian Ministry of Health says.

The Israeli soldier killed in a clash with Hamas on Sunday is the first publicly announced Israeli military fatality inside Gaza since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told CNN on Tuesday.

The incident took place during what IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Sunday was a local raid aimed at “the effort to dismantle terror infrastructure, clear the area of terrorists, weapons, and locate missing persons, and bodies.”

Some context: Sunday's clash was one of the first skirmishes between the two sides on the ground inside the enclave since October 7, but not the first time the IDF has said it operated inside Gaza.

On October 13, the IDF said it had carried out raids inside Gaza in the previous 24 hours, but it did not say clashes had taken place. 

CNN's Ibrahim Dahman, Eyad Kourdi, Amir Tal, Pierre Meilhan and Tamar Michaelis contributed to this report

Google is temporarily disabling live traffic conditions on its mapping service apps, Google Maps and Waze, in Israel, the tech company confirmed Monday, as the country prepares for a potential ground invasion into Gaza.

“As we have done previously in conflict situations and in response to the evolving situation in the region, we have temporarily disabled the ability to see live traffic conditions and busyness information out of consideration for the safety of local communities,” a Google Maps spokesperson said.

A Google spokesperson said the company consulted several sources that included regional and local authorities to make the assessment.

However, Google did not say whether the tools would be disabled in Israel, Gaza or both. It also did not say whether the action was at the request of the Israel Defense Forces. CNN has reached out to IDF for comment.

The website Geektime first reported the news.

Read more about Google's move here