Live Updates: Israeli Forces Rescue Hostage From Gaza

Mr. al-Qadi was in “stable medical condition” and being transferred to a hospital, the Israeli military said.

More than 100 hostages remain in Gaza, although at least 30 of them are now presumed dead by the Israeli authorities. In November, 105 captives were freed in a weeklong cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, and Israeli soldiers have retrieved the bodies of more than 20 others.

The Israeli military has managed to rescue only eight living hostages by force, and those military operations have often killed scores of Palestinians. Israeli military officials say the hostages are being held throughout the Gaza Strip — with many believed to be in Hamas’s underground tunnel network — making rescue missions to save each and every one implausible.

It was not immediately clear whether the operation to free Mr. al-Qadi had resulted in any deaths. But there were no reports on Tuesday of intense bombardments in Gaza of the kind that have preceded other attempts to rescue living hostages.

The violence there is intertwined with the ten-month-war in Gaza, where tens of thousands have been killed and nearly the entire population displaced. Many there are still waiting for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, as they huddle into makeshift shelters and streets torn up by Israeli bombardment. The families of the dozens of hostages still held by Hamas and its allies hope for a deal, too, to free their loved ones.

“The mission needs to be to get us home,” said Giora Zaltz, the head of a regional council in northern Israel whose kibbutz, Lehavot HaBashan, saw some residents leave after Hezbollah began firing at Israel last October.

Mr. Zaltz said Israel’s airstrikes on Sunday, which the Israeli military said had pre-empted a significant Hezbollah assault, had done little to change the balance between the two sides. For residents of Israeli border communities, he said, the situation remained frozen: roughly 60,000 Israelis displaced, even as those who stayed behind face daily rocket fire by Hezbollah.

Israel’s focus in fighting Hezbollah has been “to blow up infrastructure or kill their commanders,” Mr. Zaltz said. But in terms of creating the conditions for displaced Israelis to return home, he added, “for now, the state and the military are failing at this.”

Tensions across the Middle East had been high for weeks after the assassinations in quick succession of Fuad Shukr, a senior leader in Hezbollah, and Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas. The Israeli military said it had killed Mr. Shukr in an airstrike but has not claimed responsibility for Mr. Haniyeh’s death, though Hezbollah and Iran — which backs both groups — vowed serious reprisals against Israel for the killings.

Israel’s predawn strikes on Hezbollah on Sunday were followed by a massive Hezbollah barrage of rockets and drones, though they caused little apparent damage. Both sides quickly declared victory and suggested they would return to what has become the new norm: endless rounds of tit-for-tat strikes. Iran, for its part, appears to have held back its vengeance — at least for now.

In Lebanon, many breathed a sigh of relief after both Israel and Hezbollah signaled that they would step back from all-out war. Zeinab Hourani, a graphic designer who lives in Beirut’s southern suburbs — a Hezbollah stronghold — said the nearly deserted streets were returning to life.

Ms. Hourani said she had put some of her plans on hold and begun looking for an apartment outside the suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, fearing that Israel would target the area. But after Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, gave a speech Sunday afternoon suggesting that the clashes would be contained, “some people who left because of the tension are back,” she said.

But for the more than 100,000 Lebanese displaced from the country’s south, the conflict and disruption continue. Mr. Nasrallah has vowed to continue fighting until Israel ends its campaign against Hamas in Gaza, and months of cease-fire talks mediated by the United States, Egypt and Qatar have failed to bridge key differences between the two sides.

Fatima al-Srour, who had fled her hometown of Ramyeh, close to the border with Israel, said her father had wanted to pack up and return there after the clashes on Sunday quieted down. But she stopped him, knowing the village was still unsafe.

“We are connected with Gaza, and our return doesn’t appear to be happening soon,” said Ms. al-Srour, 35.

For Gazans, the sense of desperation is even greater as the war approaches the 11-month mark, with more than 40,000 people killed, according to the Gazan Health Ministry.

In Deir al Balah, an area of central Gaza crowded with hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians, Samih Saad waited at a field hospital hoping to receive the latest round of treatment for his leg, which he said was wounded months ago by shrapnel in a blast from a falling shell.

Many Gazans, he said, feared that an expansion of the war across the region could prolong Israel’s offensive in Gaza for months. Even if that prospect has dimmed for now, he said, most held out little hope that the cease-fire talks would succeed.

“Each time there’s a lull, we hope that it might be over soon,” he said. “But that always turns out to be mistaken.”

Humanitarian work in Gaza is coordinated with the Israeli authorities, who can slow or stop such efforts depending on security concerns in the area. The Israeli authorities were able to facilitate fewer than half of the planned humanitarian missions and movements in the Gaza Strip in the first few weeks of August, the U.N. office of humanitarian affairs said in a report on Friday, with more than half of all missions and movements blocked, delayed, impeded or canceled.

“The high number of aid missions that the Israeli authorities do not facilitate means that people who barely have the means to survive — access to clean drinking water, adequate food and shelter, to name a few — are often left with nothing at all,” Georgios Petropoulos, the leader of the U.N. office’s Gaza mission, said in a statement to The New York Times.

The Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration, an Israeli agency that coordinates humanitarian activities, did not respond to a request for comment. The Israeli military directed comments to COGAT, the Israeli body that oversees policy in the Palestinian territories and that oversees the coordination and liaison administration.

The U.N. humanitarian affairs office on Friday warned that “ongoing intense fighting, damaged roads, a breakdown of law and order and access challenges along the main humanitarian route” have led to critical food shortages in Gaza. The number of children diagnosed with acute malnutrition through arm screenings increased substantially across Gaza between May and July, it reported, noting that since January, 14,750 children ages 6 months to nearly 5 years, out of 239,580 screened, had been diagnosed with acute malnutrition.

Anushka Patil contributed reporting.

The Pentagon’s decision comes after Israel and Hezbollah fired rockets, missiles and drones at each other over the weekend. Hezbollah had responded to the bombardment of southern Lebanon on Sunday by Israeli military aircraft to stop what Israel said were preparations for a major attack by the Lebanese-based militant group.

John Kirby, the White House’s national security spokesman, said, “We’re maintaining a pretty robust force posture there to be able to defend ourselves and defend Israel should it have come to that.”

He called Hezbollah’s attack on Israel over the weekend significant enough to prompt the movement of additional American forces into the region.

“What Hezbollah launched into the early morning hours Sunday was certainly a sizable attack,” Mr. Kirby said, “different in scope than what we tend to see on a daily basis between Israel and Hezbollah. Hopefully, it won’t.”

The carrier Abraham Lincoln arrived recently in the Gulf of Oman, where the Roosevelt has been operating. The Roosevelt had been scheduled to depart this week, but General Ryder declined to say how much longer the ship would remain in the region. Another Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, said it would be about two weeks.

The Pentagon’s move comes even as Israel and Hezbollah appeared to de-escalate after firing rockets, missiles and drones at each other over the weekend, averting a wider Middle East war, at least for now. But General Ryder said the United States must take seriously vows by Iran to avenge the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political leader, last month.

Israel’s military has not commented on the assassination. But Hamas and Iran have blamed Israel for the killing, and U.S. intelligence has assessed that Israel was behind it.

“We continue to assess that there is a threat of attack, and we remain well postured to be able to support Israel’s defense, as well as to protect our forces,” General Ryder said.

As part of a coordination between the U.S. and Israeli militaries, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, chief of the general staff of the Israeli military, met with the U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., during his visit to Israel this week, the Israeli military said in a statement.

The commanders discussed security, strategic issues and strengthening regional partnerships as part of the response to threats in the Middle East, the statement said.

Johnatan Reiss contributed reporting from Tel Aviv, and Michael D. Shear from Washington.