Some 175 lorries stuffed with vital medicines, food, and water stretched into the distance at the Rafah crossing with Egypt, which has removed concrete roadblocks and is scrambling to repair the route into besieged Gaza — the only one not controlled by Israel.
Overseeing operations personally, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters: “These trucks are not just trucks, they are a lifeline, they are the difference between life and death for so many people in Gaza.”
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the Islamist militant group launched a shock raid from the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians shot, mutilated or burned to death, according to Israeli officials.
Hamas gunmen also kidnapped some 200 hostages including foreigners from around two dozen countries.
The Islamist group said Friday that its armed wing had released two Americans among the captives, a mother and her daughter, the first fruit of mediation efforts by the Gulf state of Qatar.
The Islamist group did not detail how or when the hostages were released.
The Israeli military said earlier Friday that most of those abducted to Gaza were still alive. It said more than 20 were minors.
In response to the Hamas attack, Israeli bombers have levelled entire city blocks in Gaza in preparation for a ground invasion they say is coming soon. The Hamas-run health ministry said 4,137 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have died in the onslaught.
Israeli jets pounded more than 100 Hamas targets in Gaza overnight, the army said, with AFP reporters hearing loud explosions and witnessing plumes of smoke billowing from the northern Gaza Strip.
Embracing front-line soldiers and clad in body armour, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged them to “fight like lions” and “win with full force”.
Fists clenched and voice raised, Netanyahu told cheering troops: “We will deal harsh blows to our enemies in order to achieve victory.”
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told some of the tens of thousands of personnel preparing the ground invasion that “the order will come soon,”
Beyond catastrophic
US President, Joe Biden on Friday, said he expected the first aid for Gaza to pass through the Rafah crossing from Egypt within the next two days, under a deal he clinched to allow in 20 trucks of supplies for civilians.
Medicine, water purifiers and blankets were being unloaded at El Arish airport near Gaza, with Ahmed Ali, head of the Egyptian Red Crescent, saying he was getting “two to three planes of aid a day”, AFP reports.
But World Health Organization emergencies director Michael Ryan said Biden’s 20-truck deal was “a drop in the ocean of need” and that 2,000 trucks were required.
The UN added that more than one million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people are displaced, with the humanitarian situation “beyond catastrophic” and deteriorating daily.
AFP
