Some Gazans return to north despite risks: UN

GAZA, Oct 24 (BBC/AFP): Some Palestinians who fled their homes in the north of Gaza are starting to return because of the dire situation in the south, a senior UN official says. Israel told 1.1 million residents of Gaza City and other northern areas to leave for their own safety last week.

But the UN official said they were struggling to find shelter, food and drinking water in the south. The Hamas-run health ministry also said hundreds had been killed there in Israeli air strikes over the past day.

The Israeli military said it had hit hundreds of military targets belonging to Hamas across Gaza, as it stepped up its air campaign ahead of an expected ground offensive.

More than 5,000 people are now reported to have been killed across the Strip, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, since Israel began its bombardment in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack by Hamas on 7 October, in which at least 1,400 people were killed and 222 taken hostage.

Israel has also cut off electricity and most water and stopped imports of food and medicine, although it has allowed in several dozen aid lorries through Egypt's Rafah crossing since Saturday.

Freed hostage says she was held

in 'spider's web' of Gaza tunnels

"I went through hell," says Yocheved Lifschitz, an 85-year-old grandmother and peace activist released by Hamas on Monday after two weeks in captivity. Mrs Lifschitz and her husband were kidnapped by Hamas gunmen on motorbikes and taken into a "spider's web" of tunnels underneath Gaza, she said.

She said she was hit by sticks on the journey, but that most of the hostages were being "treated well". She was freed alongside another woman, Nurit Cooper, 79, on Monday evening.

Extraordinary images show the grandmother shaking the hand of a Hamas gunman, just seconds before she was escorted to an ambulance by the International Red Cross who drove her back into Israel.

"Shalom," she appears to say to the gunman - the Hebrew word for peace. Mrs Lifschitz was kidnapped, alongside her husband Oded, from Nir Oz kibbutz in southern Israel on 7 October. He has not been released.

China FM tells Israeli counterpart 'all

countries' have right to self-defence

China's foreign minister has told his Israeli counterpart that "all countries" have a right to self-defence, Beijing said Tuesday, in the first call between top diplomats from the two countries since the Israel-Hamas conflict flared this month.

"All countries have the right to self-defence," Wang Yi told Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, according to a foreign ministry readout.

But he also stressed that "they should abide by international humanitarian law and protect the safety of civilians".

Wang promised China would "do its utmost" to support efforts that are "conducive to peace".

Hamas militants stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, and killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians who were shot, mutilated or burnt to death on the first day of the raid, according to Israeli officials. Israel says around 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed in clashes before its army regained control of the area under attack.

Macron set to meet Palestinian

president in Ramallah

France's President Emmanuel Macron was set to meet his Palestinian counterpart Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah on Tuesday, the Palestinian leader's office said.

Macron is the latest Western leader to make a solidarity visit to Israel after the October 7 attacks by Hamas, but would be the first to visit the Palestinian Authority headquarters in the occupied West Bank during the crisis. The French presidency did not immediately confirm the meeting.