Israeli hostage families demand govt explanation of Gaza strikes
Families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas militants in Gaza on Saturday demanded an immediate government explanation about the fate of the captives after the army intensified strikes on the Palestinian territory.
The main group representing more than 220 people believed abducted in the October 7 attacks by Hamas sought an immediate meeting with ministers.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement that relatives were angry over the “absolute uncertainty regarding the fate of the hostages held (in Gaza), who were also subject to the heavy bombings”.
Egypt drone explosions
Drones caused explosions that rocked two Egyptian towns on the Red Sea on Friday, the Egyptian army said, while Israel said Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi movement sent them to strike Israel.
The explosions injured six people and illustrated the risk of regional spillover from the Israel-Gaza conflict. There was no claim of responsibility.
Egypt’s military spokesman Colonel Gharib Abdel-Hafez said two drones were fired from the southern Red Sea aiming north. Yemen is at the south end of the sea and Israel at the north.
One drone crashed into a building adjacent to a hospital in the Egyptian town of Taba on the border with Israel, injuring six, in the early hours of Friday, Egypt’s military said.
The second drone was downed outside Egyptian airspace on Friday morning, and the debris fell in a desert area of Nuweiba town, about 70 km (43 miles) from the Israeli border, Egypt said.
Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that combat helicopters had been scrambled when “an aerial threat was spotted in the Red Sea region”.
“To our understanding, the strike that took place in Egypt originated in this threat,” he added in a televised briefing before Israel’s foreign ministry attributed the drones to the Houthi.
Witnesses in Taba and Nuweiba, popular tourist destinations on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, said they heard explosions and saw smoke as well as Egyptian warplanes flying overhead.