Two women freed by Hamas as more hostage releases expected

What's the latest?

The temporary ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas is now in its seventh day - and two more hostages have just been freed by Israel. Here’s a quick recap of what’s been happening on Thursday:

On the hostages: 

• Two woman have been freed by Hamas and are now in Israel being taken to an air base, Israel has said. One of them is Mia Schem, 21, who was abducted from the Supernova music festival on 7 October and was the first person to appear in a hostage video released by Hamas.
• Also freed is 40-year-old lawyer Amit Soussana, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Azar.
• Israel says that in the next few hours, more Israeli hostages are expected to be transferred to the Red Cross.
• In exchange, 30 Palestinian prisoners are set to be released tonight. Advocacy group the Palestinian Prisoners Club has released a list, which it says includes 22 children and eight women.

In other developments:

• The US's top diplomat Antony Blinken is visiting the Middle East for a third time, and today warned Israel it needs to "take every possible measure to avoid civilian harm" if fighting resumes in Gaza. As our diplomatic correspondent writes, the message from the US seems clear - there needs to be a change of tactics, to avoid killing thousands more Palestinian civilians.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Blinken that Israel will continue the war until all the hostages are free and Hamas has been completely "eliminated".
• Hamas has said a shooting in Jerusalem this morning which killed three people and injured 16 others was carried out by its members.
• Talks continue to extend the temporary ceasefire - and Egyptian officials say they and Qatar, who are mediating, are pushing to extend it by two more days.