Hamas has released two American hostages, from around 200 captives abducted in attacks by the militant group in Israel on 7 October, Israel and the militant group said.
"In response to Qatari efforts, (Ezzedine) al-Qassam Brigades released two American citizens (a mother and her daughter) for humanitarian reasons," Hamas said in a statement posted on Telegram.
Israel later confirmed two hostages had been released and were in the country. Judith Tai Raanan and Natalie Shoshana Raanan were freed nearly two weeks after they were abducted from Nahal Oz kibbutz, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement.
US President Joe Biden said he was "overjoyed" after the two women were freed and promised they would have the government's support "as they recover from this terrible ordeal," according to the White House.
"Today, we have secured the release of two Americans taken hostage by Hamas during the horrific terrorist assault against Israel on 7 October," Mr Biden said in a statement.
"Our fellow citizens have endured a terrible ordeal these past 14 days, and I am overjoyed that they will soon be reunited with their family, who has been wracked with fear," he added.
The Israeli military said earlier on Friday that most of those abducted to Gaza were still alive. "The majority of the hostages are alive. There were also dead bodies that were taken... to the Gaza Strip," an army statement said.
The military said more than 20 hostages were minors, while between 10 and 20 were over the age of 60. There are also between 100 and 200 people considered missing since the Hamas attacks, the army added.
'Half-hour warning to escape'
Israel has levelled a northern Gaza district after giving families a half-hour warning to escape, and hit an Orthodox Christian church where others had been sheltering, as it made clear that a command to invade Gaza was expected soon.
The Secretary General of the United Nations visited the crossing between besieged Gaza and Egypt, and said humanitarian aid must be allowed across as soon as possible.
Israel has vowed to wipe out the Hamas Islamist group that rules Gaza, after its gunmen burst through the barrier fence surrounding the enclave on 7 October and rampaged through Israeli towns and kibbutzes, killing 1,400 people, mainly civilians.
"You see Gaza now from a distance, you will soon see it from inside. The command will come," Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told troops gathered at the Gaza border on Thursday.
Israel has pounded Gaza with air strikes and put the enclave's 2.3 million people under a total siege, banning shipments even of food, fuel and medical supplies.
The Palestinian health ministry has said that since 7 October at least 4,137 Palestinians have been killed and 13,000 wounded in Gaza in Israeli strikes.
The UN says more than a million have been made homeless.
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the main Palestinian Christian denomination, said Israeli forces had struck the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City, where hundreds of Christians and Muslims had sought sanctuary.
Video from the scene showed a wounded boy being carried from rubble at night. A civil defence worker said two people on upper floors had survived; those on lower floors had been killed and their bodies were still in the rubble.
"They felt they would be safe here. They came from under the bombardment and the destruction, and they said they would be safe here but destruction chased them," a man cried out.
Gaza's Hamas-run government media office said 18 Christian Palestinians had been killed. There was no immediate word from the church on the final death toll. It said targeting churches that were used as shelters for people fleeing bombing was "a warcrime that cannot be ignored".
The Israeli military said part of the church was damaged in a strike on a militant command centre and it was reviewing the incident.
Israel has already told all civilians to evacuate the northern half of Gaza, which includes Gaza City. Many people have yet to leave saying they fear losing everything and have nowhere safe to go with southern areas also under attack.
In Zahra, a northern Gaza town, residents said their entire district of some 25 apartment buildings was razed to the ground.
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They received Israeli warning messages on their mobile phones at breakfast, followed ten minutes later by a small drone strike. After another 20 minutes, F-16 warplanes brought the buildings down in huge explosions and clouds of dust.
"Everything I ever dreamt of and thought that I have achieved was gone. In that apartment was my dream, my memories with my children, and my wife, was the smell of safety and love," Ali, a resident of the district, told Reuters by phone, declining to give his full name for fear of reprisals.
The United Nations humanitarian affairs office said more than 140,000 homes - nearly a third of all homes in Gaza – have been damaged, with nearly 13,000 completely destroyed.
The south of the enclave has also been regularly hit. Rescue workers were combing through the wreckage of a house in the main southern city Khan Younis looking for survivors.
A man wept while a medic comforted him at the side of a road next to two dead bodies wrapped in white shrouds. The bodies were later held aloft by marchers who carried them through the Khan Younis streets.
International attention has focused on getting aid to Gaza through the one access point not controlled by Israel, the Rafah crossing to Egypt.
US President Joe Biden, who visited Israel on Wednesday, emerged with a promise from Israel to allow limited shipments from Egypt provided that the aid is monitored to prevent any from reaching Hamas.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres toured the checkpoint on the Egypt side and called for a meaningful number of trucks to enter Gaza every day and checks to be quick and pragmatic.
"We are actively engaging with all parties to make sure conditions for delivering aid are lifted," he said.
Western leaders have so far mostly offered support to Israel's campaign against Hamas, although there is mounting unease about the plight of civilians in Gaza.
