The mother of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the remaining 201 hostages taken captive by Hamas, is imploring the world to be energized by the release of American citizens Judith and Natalie Raanan on Friday.

“We were very relieved for Natalie and Judith’s release last night and the message we want to get out: ‘Let’s keep going, let’s keep doing everything we can.’ We still have 201 hostages there,” Rachel Goldberg said in a telephone interview Saturday.

Goldberg-Polin, an American citizen, was gravely injured during the terrorist attack on a music festival near the Gaza border on Oct. 7. A member of Hamas threw a grenade into a bunker where he and his friend were taking shelter along with other young Israelis. Goldberg-Polin's left arm was blown off in the explosion.

“He is wounded horribly and needs humanitarian care immediately as do the other 200 people who are there,” Goldberg said. The hostages are presumed to be held in the labyrinth of tunnels under Gaza.

“Hersh might be dying,” she added. “I feel like he is dying and I need to know that I did everything with every molecule of my body to get him out.”

Debris near Zikim, Israel, 3 miles from the Gaza border, that Israeli soldiers said came from a rocket intercepted by the Iron Dome.

UNICEF, the U.N. agency responsible for providing humanitarian and emergency relief to children worldwide, has sent 44,000 bottles of drinking water to Gaza — just enough for 22,000 people — as part of the 20-truck convoy of aid deliveries that crossed Egypt's border with Gaza on Saturday.

"This first, limited water will save lives, but the needs are immediate and immense — not just for water, but for food, fuel, medicine, and essential goods and services," UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement. "Unless we can provide humanitarian supplies consistently, we face the real threat of life-threatening disease outbreaks," she added.

The entire convoy contains just 3% of what is needed by civilians on a daily basis, the Gaza health ministry said, and does not include any fuel.

ZIKIM, Israel — On a hill near Zikim, an Israeli community 3 miles from the Gaza border, smoke rises from a wooded area where a missile landed a mile or so away. A little further away is Gaza, where smoke rises from the ongoing bombardment, and distant booms can be heard and even felt.

BAT HADAR, Israel — Just 5 miles from the Gaza border, the small community of Bat Hader is deserted. Houses are shuttered, and hulking cylinders of concrete block the roads. The shuddering force of Israel’s aerial bombardment of Gaza can be felt here.

RAMALLAH, West Bank — The aid trucks that entered Gaza Saturday are carrying just 3% of what was required on a daily basis “in terms of health and humanitarian needs,” before the war with Israel erupted, the Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement.

The medical aid “will be important,” it said, but “excluding the inclusion of fuel within humanitarian aid will maintain the danger to the lives of the sick and wounded and the continuation of life-saving services.”

It added that hospitals in the enclave had “completely dried up their resources due to the lack of the most basic emergency treatment supplies, including fuel.”

TEL AVIV — The release of an American mother and daughter held hostage by Hamas suggests the militant group has fears over Israel's expected ground invasion into Gaza and may be willing to negotiate to stop or delay it, two former IDF intelligence officers have told NBC News.

“Of course it’s good that those two are released,” Eldad Shavit, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv who previously served in senior roles in Israeli Defense intelligence and in the Prime Minister’s Office, said in a phone interview today. “But for Hamas ... it’s probably a manipulation," he said.

“My assumption is that Hamas is conducting now a military operation and also a political campaign,” said Shavit. “Releasing the two hostages of American nationality, I think by that they hope that they can push pressure on the international community,” he said. “To pressure Israel not to proceed with plans, military plans.”

Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at INSS who previously served as an Israeli intelligence officer and a former government official, said he believed Hamas was "very concerned [by] the ground incursion and they will do whatever they can in order to prevent it." Still, he said the group was unlikely to be considering releasing all roughly 200 hostages.

"The hostages are their insurance policy to prevent the Israeli incursion, to enable humanitarian aid, in order to improve their image vis-à-vis the international community," he said.

LONDON — A protest in solidarity with Palestinians has begun at Marble Arch in central London, where thousands of people have converged carrying signs demanding a ceasefire and an end to the siege on Gaza.

Protesters will march through the city center and finish the rally at Downing Street, the official residence of U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

At a similar march last week, which ran through London's central shopping district of Oxford Circus, over 150,000 people are estimated to have attended.

Israel's military said today that plans have been approved to "expand operational activities," after two weeks of threats of a looming ground invasion.

The Israel Defense Forces said in an statement that its soldiers have been deployed and engaged in field exercises, including those in reserve services. Lt. Commander Or Volozhinsky, head of the 188th brigade, said that the brigade's soldiers are ready near the Gaza Strip "at this very moment."

"We will achieve what is required with the spirit of battle and determination in order to bring security to our people for many years to come," Volozhinsky said.