Israel-Gaza updates: Biden speaks with Netanyahu about hostages' release, Gaza humanitarian assistance

An American humanitarian aid worker who remains trapped in the Gaza Strip has told her family that Israeli airstrikes "have increased in intensity" in recent days.

"[They've increased] even in the south where people were told they'd be safe," her niece, Leah Okumura, told ABC News in a remote interview on Friday. "It sounds like fireworks where she's staying just constantly."

Okumura's aunt, Ramona, traveled to Gaza several weeks ago to work with children in need of prosthetic limbs. She evacuated from a [U.N.] compound in northern Gaza last week, moving south and heeding Israel's call to do so as it launched retaliatory airstrikes on the Hamas militant group that rules the territory. She is now waiting to cross into Egypt, but the border remains closed "despite several promises" from the U.S. Department of State that Americans would be allowed through, according to her niece.

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Niece of American aid worker trapped in Gaza speaks out Leah Okumura spoke about the continuing struggles and delays of her Aunt Ramona who remains trapped in Gaza.

ABCNews.com

"She currently has limited access to food and water," Okumura said. "We're grateful that she does have access to any at all."

"We love her very much and we are doing everything that we can," she added. "I just want her to come home."

-ABC News' Ibtissem Guenfoud, James Longman, Zoe Magee and Morgan Winsor

A lawyer who has been in touch with multiple American families trapped in the Gaza Strip said the U.S. Department of State has offered them no plan, timeline or departure option.

"They continue to be mislead with bad information," Sammy Nabulsi told ABC News in a remote interview on Friday.

One of those families is waiting to cross into Egypt via the Rafah border crossing, which remains closed despite State Department officials indicating that it would open and Americans would be able to leave Gaza, Nabulsi said. In recent days, the family has run out of drinking water and the house they’re staying in was almost hit by an Israeli airstrike, according to Nabulsi, who noted that "the intensity of bombing and airstrikes in the area has increased."

"My biggest fear is that if this continues ... they may die," he said. "That’s frankly where we’re headed at the moment."

-ABC News' Ibtissem Guenfoud, James Longman, Zoe Magee and Morgan Winsor

President Joe Biden said Friday he believes the first 20 humanitarian aid trucks will enter Gaza "in the next 24 to 48 hours."

"I got a commitment from the Israelis and the president of Egypt that the crossing will be opened," he said.

The northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona was the latest town along the northern border to be evacuated, allowing Israeli forces to "expand its operational freedom to act against the Hezbollah terrorist organization," an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said.

Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah have engaged in artillery exchanges since the outbreak of the latest war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas. Hezbollah has voiced strong support for Hamas, sparking fears that the war could spread into Lebanon.

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What is Hezbollah?The Iran-backed, Shiite Muslim political party and militant group has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S.

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The IDF said one of its drones "struck a terrorist in Lebanese territory" on Thursday night and that Israeli forces also struck "several military assets belonging to" Hezbollah.