The two women were freed for “compelling humanitarian” reasons following mediation by Qatar and Egypt, the Hamas’ military wing said.They were taken to the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, days after two American women, Judith Tai Raanan and her daughter Natalie Shoshana Raanan, were freed.According to several media reports, Hamas might release another 50 hostages. Red Cross representatives are allegedly on their way to Gaza to take out the hostages with dual nationalities, they claimed.Tel Aviv on Monday increased the number of hostages it has confirmed to 222 people. Israel’s army said it was preparing for “unrelenting attacks” to dismantle Hamas even as former US President Barack Obama warned that “any Israeli military strategy that ignores human costs could ultimately backfire”.Israel won’t delay a possible ground invasion of Gaza over the hostages, Energy Minister Israel Katz told German tabloid newspaper Bild, adding that everything would be done to bring the hostages home. “But that cannot hinder our actions including the ground offensive, if we decide on it,” he was quoted as saying.Hamas has killed 1,400 people in the worst-ever attack in the nation’s 75-year history, Israel said.Gaza’s health ministry said the death count in the Strip has surged to over 5,000 with the Israel military saying on Monday that it had conducted over 300 new strikes in 24 hours. The death count includes over 2,000 children, the ministry said.The European Union is considering a call for a humanitarian pause to the Israel-Hamas war, with the US warning that a Gaza ceasefire would benefit Hamas, reported news agency AFP.A ceasefire would “give Hamas the ability to rest, to refit, and to get ready to continue launching terrorist attacks against Israel”, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.President Joe Biden said that any discussions about a Gaza ceasefire could only take place if Hamas frees all hostages seized from Israel in its October 7 attack. “We should have those hostages released and then we can talk,” Biden said at a White House event when asked if he would support a “hostages-for-ceasefire” deal, AFP reported.

Some of Israel’s actions in its war against Hamas, like cutting off food and water for Gaza, could “harden Palestinian attitudes for generations” and weaken international support for Israel, former U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday.

In rare comments on an active foreign policy crisis, Obama said any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs of the war “could ultimately backfire.”

“The Israeli government’s decision to cut off food, water and electricity to a captive civilian population (in Gaza) threatens not only to worsen a growing humanitarian crisis; it could further harden Palestinian attitudes for generations, erode global support for Israel, play into the hands of Israel’s enemies, and undermine long-term efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region,” Obama said.

Israel has heavily bombarded Gaza with air strikes since Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on Israel left over 1,400 people dead. Israel’s air strikes have killed more than 5,000 Palestinians, Gaza officials say.

Obama condemned Hamas’ attack and reiterated his support for Israel’s right to defend itself, while cautioning about risks to civilians in such wars.

It was not clear whether Obama had coordinated his statement with U.S. President Joe Biden, who served as his vice president for eight years.

During his presidency, Obama often backed Israel’s right to self-defense at the start of conflicts with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, but quickly called for Israeli restraint once Palestinian casualties mounted from airstrikes.

Gaza, a 45 km-long (25-mile) strip of land that is home to 2.3 million people, has been ruled politically since 2007 by Hamas, an Iran-backed Islamist group, but faces a blockade from Israel.

The Obama administration sought, but ultimately failed to broker, a peace deal in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

Since taking office in early 2021, Biden has not tried to resume long-stalled talks, saying that leaders on both sides were too intransigent and the climate was not right.

Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a testy relationship when Obama was in office, including when Obama’s administration was negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran.

Biden, as Obama’s vice president, often acted as a mediator between the two men.

In his statement on Monday, Obama acknowledged that the U.S. had itself “fallen short of our higher values when engaged in war,” especially after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Wagh Bakri Tea Group executive director Parag Desai today died at 49, the company announced on social media. He suffered a brain hemorrhage after a fall last week, and died in hospital on Sunday.

“With profound grief, we regret to inform the sad demise of our beloved Parag Desai,” the company said in an Instagram post.

Several media reports claimed Desai fell after he was chased by stray dogs. “It was stated that the patient fell down after being chased by dogs but apparently, there were no dog bite marks on his body,” said the hospital.

“A CT scan revealed acute subdural hematoma with bilateral frontal contusion,” the statement said.

Shaktisinh Gohil, Rajya Sabha MP and Gujarat Congress chief, offered his condolences and wrote, “Very sad news coming in. Parag Desai, Director and owner Wagh Bakri Tea passed away. He had a brain hemorrhage following a fall. May his soul rest in peace. My condolences to the entire Wagh Bakri family across India.”

Tech Mahindra also paid his tributes to Desai and called it an “untimely loss”. “Very sad to hear about Parag Desai’s death. A terribly untimely loss indeed,” he said in a post on X.

Parag Desai was one of the two executive directors on the board of Wagh Bakri Tea Group, who led their transformation into tea lounges and e-commerce.

He was spearhead the group’s sales, marketing and export departments. He was also an expert tea taster and evaluator.

Wagh Bakri Tea Group was founded in 1892 by Narandas Desai. Today, it has a turnover of Rs 2,000 crore.

The group has presence in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Western Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, and recently forayed into Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha.

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