Live updates: Hamas releases two more hostages; Israel bombards Gaza after aid convoy enters; IDF prepares for multilateral operation

That is where we're going to leave our live coverage of the Israel-Hamas war today.

Here's what made headlines throughout the day.

- Hamas released two elderly Israeli women held hostage in Gaza as the US expressed increasing concern that the escalating war will spark a wider conflict in the region, including attacks on American troops.

- US President Joe Biden has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow a continuous stream of "urgently needed" aid into the Gaza Strip. The two leaders had a phone call earlier today in which Biden "underscored the need to sustain a continuous flow of urgently needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza", according to the White House.

- Google is temporarily disabling live traffic conditions on its mapping service apps, Google Maps and Waze, in Israel. The tech company confirmed the move, as the country prepares for a potential ground invasion into Gaza.

- International nonprofit Save the Children is calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, saying the number of children killed in the strip has reached at least 2000.

Our live blog will return tomorrow but in the meantime head to 9News.com.au and nine.com.au for the latest updates.

The two women who were released from Hamas custody appeared to be in an "OK" medical condition when they arrived at Tel Aviv's Ichilov hospital, a hospital official said early on Tuesday morning.

"They look OK. Their medical condition is OK. They're talking," the hospital's head nurse Eti Uziel said in a video released by the hospital shortly after the arrival of the two women.

The women – Israeli citizens Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85 – had an "emotional" reunion with their family members at the hospital and are being monitored at the hospital overnight, Uriel said.

"At first, we immediately brought them to their family members.

"It was a very, very emotional meeting. Right now, we will let them rest a little with the family.

"After that, we will conduct a comprehensive physical examination.

"They will stay with us tonight and tomorrow… Right now for them and for the family members, it is a very, very emotional situation and we are happy that they are here with us."

An Israeli soldier killed in a clash with Hamas on Sunday (local time) is the first publicly announced Israeli military fatality inside Gaza since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has told CNN.

The incident took place during what IDF spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Sunday was a local raid aimed at "the effort to dismantle terror infrastructure, clear the area of terrorists, weapons, and locate missing persons, and bodies".

Gaza's largest hospital will become a "mass grave" if it runs out of fuel, a British-Palestinian doctor working there told CNN on Tuesday.

"The real question is, is there anything left of a hospital when there's no electricity? And my answer is no. Effectively, Shifa Hospital will become a mass grave if it runs out of electricity," Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah said, adding there are currently 150 patients on ventilators with doctors unable to run operating theatres and anesthetic machines due to the shortages.

The hospital currently has "around 1,700 wounded patients, three times its capacity," he said.

With longer and more frequent power cuts, Abu-Sittah said Shifa Hospital "effectively... will cease to exist as a hospital."

This would also impact the maternity and neonatal units, the largest in Gaza, as over 15 incubators will "cease to function" once the power runs out, Abu-Sittah said.

In response to a question on whether this is a "countdown" to children dying, Abu-Sittah stated, "absolutely".

The shortages are also impacting ambulance services, which require petrol to reach and bring in the wounded.

Abu-Sittah said to his knowledge the hospital has not received any extra fuel supplies from Hamas.

"I'm not aware that the hospital has been receiving any extra fuel supplies but the stand from the administration is that what we have is what was in the supplies before," Abu-Sittah said.

Former US president Barack Obama says there is a risk Israel's response to the Hamas attacks of October 7 backfires.

"Any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs could ultimately backfire," he wrote today.

"Already, thousands of Palestinians have been killed in the bombing of Gaza, many of them children. Hundreds of thousands have been forced from their homes.

"The Israeli government's decision to cut off food, water and electricity to a captive civilian population 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 it was important to recognise Israel has "every right to exist" while adding "it is possible for people of good will to champion Palestinian rights and oppose certain Israeli government policies in the West Bank and Gaza without being antisemitic".

US President Joe Biden has urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow a continuous stream of "urgently needed" aid into the Gaza Strip.

The two leaders had a phone call earlier today in which Biden "underscored the need to sustain a continuous flow of urgently needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza", according to the White House.

A third aid convoy was allowed into the enclave today, but the UN warned it will not last long and didn't contain any fuel – which is desperately needed to keep Gazan hospitals running.

Google is temporarily disabling live traffic conditions on its mapping service apps, Google Maps and Waze, in Israel, the tech company has confirmed, as the country prepares for a potential ground invasion into Gaza.

"As we have done previously in conflict situations and in response to the evolving situation in the region, we have temporarily disabled the ability to see live traffic conditions and busyness information out of consideration for the safety of local communities," a Google Maps spokesperson said.

Google did not say whether the tools would be disabled in Israel, Gaza or both. It also did not say whether the action was at the request of the Israel Defense Forces.

CNN has reached out to IDF for comment.

Yousra Abu Sharekh's days begin in the southern Gaza Strip often after sleepless nights amid blaring ambulance sirens and the clamor of neighbors in the brief pause between relentless Israeli airstrikes.

By daybreak, the 33-year-old mother is on the hunt for bread, lining up for hours at bakeries to buy one bag to feed her two children.

Without electricity, disconnected from her relatives and terrified by the sounds of warplanes overhead, she rushes in the afternoon to see her sick mother at a crowded UN shelter 20 minutes away.

There, she finally can charge her phone and check on her 66-year-old father who stubbornly stayed behind in their northern Gaza City home, refusing to heed Israeli evacuation orders.

Only two weeks ago, Abu Sharekh had a thriving life, working enthusiastically at a coveted new job and caring for her family.

"I feel either we were dreaming then or we are in a nightmare now," she said.