Day 24 of Israel-Palestine war: 'Female soldier captured during Hamas assault released'; Israel deepens military assault in northern Gaza Strip

Israeli troops and tanks pushed deeper into Gaza on Monday, advancing on two sides of the territory’s main city, as the U.N. and medical staff warned that airstrikes have hit closer to hospitals where tens of thousands of Palestinians have sought shelter alongside thousands of wounded. Israel says a female soldier captured by Hamas militants during their Oct. 7 incursion has been released during Israel's ground operations in Gaza.

Gaza (Palestine):Israel expanded its military assault deeper into the northern Gaza Strip as the U.N. and medical staff expressed fears over airstrikes hitting closer to hospitals, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have sought shelter alongside thousands of wounded. Relief workers said the largest convoy of humanitarian aid to arrive in Gaza still fell far short of needs.

The Palestinian death toll in the Israel-Hamas war has reached 8,306, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza. In the occupied West Bank, more than 110 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, most of them civilians slain in the initial Hamas rampage that started the fighting Oct. 7. In addition, 240 hostages were taken from Israel into Gaza by the militant group.

Here’s what is happening in the latest Israel-Hamas war:

• Israel says female soldier captured during Hamas assault has been released

Israel says a female soldier captured by Hamas militants during their Oct. 7 incursion has been released during Israel's ground operations in Gaza. The military provided few details, but she appears to be the first captive to be freed since Israel stepped up its ground war. The military says Private Ori Megidish “was medically checked, is doing well, and has met with her family.”

• UN Special Envoy for Syria warns of 'potential wider escalation'

The Israeli-Hamas conflict has spilled into Syria which is now “at its most dangerous situation for a long time,” fueled by growing instability and violence and a lack of progress toward a political solution to its 12-year conflict, the U.N. special envoy for the country says. Geir Pedersen told the U.N. Security Council Monday he was “sounding an alarm” that the Syrian people now face “a terrifying prospect of a potential wider escalation.” He pointed to airstrikes attributed to Israel hitting Aleppo and Damascus airports several times and U.S. retaliation against what it says are multiple attacks on its forces by groups the U.S. “claims are backed by Iran, including on Syrian territory.”

• 5 people killed in occupied West Bank

Five Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Palestinian health ministry said. Another Palestinian died of wounds sustained in an attack on a Jewish West Bank settler last week near Ramallah, the ministry said. Four Palestinians were killed in heavy clashes after dozens of military vehicles and two bulldozers entered the town of Jenin and and the adjacent refugee camp of the same name for an arrest raid. Israeli media reported that the battle included drone strikes — a once rare, but now increasingly common attack mode used in the West Bank.

Another Palestinian man was killed in a military raid near Hebron. Violence has surged in the West Bank since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out on Oct. 7. Since then, Israeli forces and settlers killed 122 Palestinians, according to the health ministry.

• Hamas releases video showing 3 hostages criticizing Israel

The militant Hamas group ruling Gaza released a video Monday purporting to show three women captured during its Oct. 7 attack inside Israel. One of the women delivers a brief statement, likely under duress, criticizing Israel’s response to the hostage crisis. Hamas and other militants captured around 240 people during the deadly raid and have said they will release them in return for thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Israel has dismissed the offer.

• US says American and coalition forces were attacked 23 times in Iraq, Syria

Two U.S. senior defense officials briefing reporters at the Pentagon on Monday said that from Oct. 17 to Oct. 30, U.S. and coalition forces were attacked at least 14 times in Iraq and nine times in Syria by a mix of drones and rockets for a total of 23 attacks. The officials said many of the drones and rockets were intercepted and failed to reach their targets.

Bases housing U.S. troops in Syria and Iraq have come under rocket and drone attacks over the past weeks as tensions in the region rise over the Israel-Hamas war.

The World Bank reported Monday that oil prices could be pushed into “uncharted waters” if the violence between Israel and Hamas intensifies, which could result in increased food prices worldwide. The World Bank’s Commodity Markets Outlook found that while the effects on oil prices should be limited if the conflict doesn’t widen, the outlook “would darken quickly if the conflict were to escalate.”

The attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas and the ensuing Israel military operation against Hamas have raised fears of a wider Mideast conflict. Indermit Gill, the World Bank’s chief economist, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has already had disruptive effects on the global economy “that persist to this day.”

“If the conflict were to escalate, the global economy would face a dual energy shock for the first time in decades — not just from the war in Ukraine but also from the Middle East,” Gill said.

• Lebanon says it has dismantled 21 rocket launchers

The Lebanese army says troops have discovered 21 launchers, one of them equipped with a rocket ready to be fired, in several locations near the border with Israel and dismantled them. The army’s statement came as the militant Hezbollah group said its gunmen attacked two Israeli posts along the border on Monday, including one on the edge of the Israeli border town of Metula, destroying “technical equipment.”

Israeli forces fired shells toward the Lebanese side of the border, causing some fires around their posts, in an apparent attempt to prevent Hezbollah fighters from hiding in orchards. After the Israel-Hamas war broke out on Oct. 7, Hezbollah and Palestinian fighters have fired rockets toward Israel and the frontier has been tense over the past three weeks. Hezbollah has lost 47 of its fighters and four Lebanese civilians have been killed in Israeli shelling.

• Israel kills 304 people in Gaza in past day

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza says 304 people were killed over the past day, raising the death toll since the conflict began to 8,306. Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said Monday that the number of people wounded since Oct. 7 has reached 21,048. He said the dead include 3,457 children and 2,136 women, adding that there are about 1,950 people still missing under the rubble. Al-Qudra urged people to head to medical centers in Gaza to donate blood of all types.

He said the Israeli bombardment has been getting closer to medical centers and hospitals such as the Turkish Friendship hospital that specializes in treating people who have cancer.

• Overnight airstrikes damage hospital south of Gaza City

Overnight airstrikes struck an area close to the Turkish hospital south of Gaza City — damaging roofs, doors and windows, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Monday. Medhat Abbas shared images showing damage to a roof and a shattered window in the hospital, the only facility treating cancer patients in Gaza.

An initial report on the damage, seen by The Associated Press, said the hospital's water desalination system was also destroyed. The hospital treats 60 cancer patients and over two dozen other patients who were recently transferred from al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest.

• Vatican says two-state solution needed for stable, lasting peace

A top Vatican official spoke by telephone Monday with the Iranian foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, at the foreign minister’s request. The Vatican said in a statement that the Vatican’s foreign minister, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, expressed “serious concern in the Holy See about what is happening in Israel and Palestine, emphasizing the absolute necessity to avoid widening the conflict and to reach a two-state solution for a stable and lasting peace.”

• Gaza's water shortage means people bathe and wash dishes in the sea

On a beach in Gaza, a young boy hunches over a plastic tub full of soapy water and laundry. Nearby, a woman uses sand to clean metal pots and pans. A man stands waist-deep in the sea cleaning a pair of sweatpants, while elsewhere, three women sit in the salty Mediterranean and let the lapping waves rinse their dresses.

The besieged Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million people don’t have access to clean, running water after Israel cut off water and electricity to the enclave. If water does trickle from the tap, residents have said it's so contaminated with sewage and seawater that it’s undrinkable. Under these circumstances, some are forced to use the sea to bathe, wash clothes and clean their cookware.

On Sunday, 33 trucks carrying water, food and medicine entered the only border crossing from Egypt. Israel said it has opened two water lines in southern Gaza within the past week. The Associated Press could not independently verify that either line was functioning. (With AP inputs)