Gaza City, Gaza - Israel is on the brink of launching a full-scale ground invasion of the besieged Gaza Strip, in what the UN high commissioner for refugees is warning will be a "catastrophic" escalation.

Within Israel, still coming to terms with the deadliest attack in its 75-year history, the drumbeat of war was growing louder, as leaders rallied troops for a ground offensive.

Parading in body armor, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embraced front-line troops near Gaza, urging them to "fight like lions" and "win with full force".

"We will deal harsh blows to our enemies in order to achieve victory," he added.

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Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also toured the front line, telling some of the tens of thousands of troops awaiting the ground invasion that "the order will come soon."

"Right now you see Gaza from afar, soon you will see it from the inside," said Gallant.

Meanwhile, trucks stuffed with international aid for Palestinians should be rolling "in the next day or so," the UN said Friday, with hundreds of thousands desperate for life-saving supplies after relentless bombing from Israel.

The World Health Organization's emergencies director has called a deal struck by US President Joe Biden to allow in 20 trucks "a drop in the ocean of need".

"It should be 2,000 trucks," said Michael Ryan.

US President Joe Biden said he was "overjoyed" on Friday after Hamas released two American hostages.

"Our fellow citizens have endured a terrible ordeal these past 14 days, and I am overjoyed that they will soon be reunited with their family, who has been wracked with fear," he said on X.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said he was relived Hamas had released the two Americans, but that the group still holds up to 10 more US citizens captive.

"There are still 10 additional Americans who remain unaccounted for in this conflict. We know that some of them are being held hostage by Hamas, along with an estimated 200 other hostages held in Gaza," Blinken said. The captured "include men, women, young boys, young girls, elderly people, from many nations, every single one of them should be released," he added.

Meanwhile, residents of Gaza are still awaiting aid, with Biden saying he expects the first 20 trucks to enter Gaza from Egypt in the "next 24 to 48 hours." He said the holdup was because the "highway had to be repaved, and it was in very bad shape."

TAG24's coverage of the Israel-Gaza war will resume on Saturday.

Two US citizens held hostage by Hamas in Gaza have been released and are on their way to Israel, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.

"In response to Qatari efforts, (Ezzedine) al-Qassam Brigades released two American citizens (a mother and her daughter) for humanitarian reasons," Hamas said in a statement posted on Telegram.

Judith and Natalie Raanan were among some 200 people kidnapped in the October 7 attack on Israel and held in Gaza ever since.

The Israeli military said earlier Friday that most of those abducted to Gaza were still alive.

Most of the 200 or so people kidnapped in Israel by Hamas militants and taken to the Gaza Strip are still alive, the Israeli military said on Friday.

"The majority of the hostages are alive. There were also dead bodies that were taken... to the Gaza Strip," an army statement said.

The military said more than 20 hostages were children, while between 10 and 20 were over the age of 60.

The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem has accused Israel of committing a "war crime" after an airstrike on the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church, a 1,000-year-old place of worship that is the oldest church still in use in Gaza City.

Witnesses told AFP the strike appeared to have been aimed at a target close to the place of worship where hundreds of residents had taken refuge as bombs continue to drop on the Palestinian enclave.

Gaza's health ministry said at least 18 people were killed.

"Targeting churches and their institutions, along with the shelters they provide to protect innocent citizens, especially children and women who have lost their homes due to Israeli airstrikes on residential areas over the past 13 days, constitutes a war crime that cannot be ignored," the Patriarchate said in a statement.

Israeli bombing since has killed at least 3,785 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the majority of whom are children and women, according to Gaza authorities. Some 1,400 people, most of them civilian, were murdered in the October 7 Hamas attack.