The humanitarian lifeline into Gaza remained closed on Friday despite a personal visit by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, and an agreement to open it brokered by Joe Biden, as Israel continued to pummel the enclave with airstrikes. The failure to lift the total Israeli blockade further endangered Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people, with the UN forced in many cases to reduce the water ration to one litre a person a day for all uses, compared with the minimum international standard of 15 litres. Late on Friday, a spokesperson for the Hamas armed wing said that it had released two American hostages “for humanitarian reasons” in response to Qatari mediation efforts. Media reports named them as Judith Raanan and her daughter Natalie, 18. Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, appeared on Friday to suggest that Israel did not intend to reoccupy the territory it left in 2005. Addressing lawmakers, Gallant said that first, airstrikes and “maneuvring” would root out Hamas. That would be followed by a lower-intensity fight to defeat remaining pockets of resistance. …

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