Israel-Hamas War Updates: Anti-tank missile fired at Israeli village on Lebanese border

Palestinian Americans and other dual citizens rushed to southern Gaza’s Rafah crossing with Egypt on Saturday as 20 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid entered the besieged strip that has staggered under shortages of medicine and food.

Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched in London and other cities on Saturday to demand Israel stop its bombardment of Gaza, as the Israel-Hamas war entered its third week and its ripples spread around the globe.

A two-truck UN convoy that entered Gaza from Egypt is carrying over 44,000 bottles of drinking water from the U.N. children’s agency - a day’s supply for 22,000 people, according to UNICEF.

The Israel Defense Forces says an anti-tank guided missile was fired from Lebanon at the Margaliot area in northern Israel. The IDF says it carried out a drone strike against the cell that launched the missile, reported The Times of Israel.

Palestinian officials warned on Saturday that the volume of aid that reached Gaza is "not enough" to relieve the deteriorating humanitarian situation, CNN reported.

The death toll in Gaza since October 7 has risen to 4,385, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, as the enclave continues to come under bombardment from Israeli airstrikes and aid agencies warn hospitals are nearly out of fuel and supplies, CNN reports.

Iraq’s prime minister warned Saturday that if the war between Israel and Hamas spreads to other countries in the region it will affect the flow of oil to international markets.

Police in Cyprus said Saturday they arrested four Syrians on suspicion of setting off a small explosive device that caused no damage not far from Israeli Embassy in the capital Nicosia.

IDF spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, said “the humanitarian situation in Gaza is under control.” He said the aid would be delivered only to southern Gaza, where the army has ordered people to relocate, adding that no fuel would enter the territory.

Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fire a large rocket barrage at central Israel. Several loud explosions are heard, apparently caused by Iron Dome interceptions, reported The Times of Israel.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has reiterated his government’s rejection of forcing Palestinians in Gaza to flee into his country’s Sinai Peninsula.

The United Nations’ chief says Hamas’ “reprehensible assault” on Israel “can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.” Secretary-General António Guterres called for protection of civilians and the sparing of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and UN premises, from the bombardment.

IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says the military has so far notified the families of 210 hostages that their loved ones are currently being held in the Gaza Strip, reported The Times of Israel.

IDF spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari says that in the past day, a fifth of rockets launched by Palestinian terror groups in Gaza have fallen short in the Strip, reported The Times of Israel.

The United Nations welcomed the opening of the Rafah crossing, allowing humanitarian aid to reach Gaza for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war began, reported CNN.

People on the Egyptian side of the border were jubilant as the Rafah crossing briefly opened on Saturday morning, celebrating with ululations and chants, CNN reported.

Israel issues a warning against travel to Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, citing fears that Israeli travelers will be targets of those angry at the ongoing war sparked by the deadly Hamas onslaught, reported The Times of Israel.

More than 200 trucks carrying roughly 3,000 tons of aid had been positioned near the crossing for days waiting to head into Gaza. The border crossing between Egypt and Gaza opened Saturday to let desperately needed aid flow to Palestinians running short of food, medicine and water in the territory that is under an Israeli siege

The first convoy of aid trucks have entered besieged Gaza on Saturday, as seen by CNN’s team on the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing.

Sirens sound in the coastal city of Ashdod, signaling incoming rockets after a six-hour silence from Gaza, reported The Times of Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces says it carried out strikes against numerous Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip overnight, reported The Times of Israel.

Hospitals in Gaza are "on the brink of collapse," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned, saying that the number of patients treated or waiting to be treated is at 150% of the hospitals' capacity, and people are lying on the floors and corridors, reports CNN.

Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas by phone to discuss the “latest situation resulting from the ongoing brutalities of Israeli occupation forces against innocent Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank,” a Pakistani government statement said on Saturday.

An Israeli reserve soldier was killed yesterday in an anti-tank missile attack along the border with Lebanon, according to the Israel Defense Forces, reported The Times of Israel.

A man whose Chicago-area daughter and former wife were abducted by Hamas in southern Israel says he has spoken to his daughter since her release and he believes she will be home soon.

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.

A senior White House official has said that the US was "very much involved" in securing the release of two American hostages who were held by the Hamas militant group for 14 days.

On Friday, the Hamas released US citizens Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie Raanan, who were kidnapped shortly after the military group launched its massive assault on October 7.

Close to 493,000 women and girls are already displaced from their homes in Gaza following the ongoing conflict, according to the estimates of UN Women's 'Rapid Assessment and Humanitarian Response in the Occupied Palestinian Territory'.

Additionally, the violence has tragically resulted in a growing number of widows, as an estimated 900 women have become the heads of households following their male partner's death.

I spoke to Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas and reiterated that the US remains committed to the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination. The actions of Hamas terrorists don’t take that right away. Like so many others, I am heartbroken by the tragic loss of Palestinian life, including in the explosion in the hospital in Gaza, which was not done by the Israelis, US President Joe Biden said.

"I just spoke with the two Americans released today after being held hostage by Hamas. I let them know that their government will fully support them as they recover and heal," POTUS tweeted.

"Jill and I will continue holding close in our hearts all the families of unaccounted for Americans," he added.

Two of the hostages, mother and daughter Yehudit Tai and Natali Shoshana Raanan were released by the Hamas terror organisation and were transferred to the Israeli border via the Red Cross.

They are on their way to an army base in central Israel were their families are anxiously waiting to greet them.

We will do everything in our power to bring the rest of the hostages home.

Israel has said that two Americans held hostage by Hamas, a mother and daughter, have been released, AP reported.