At least 4,385 killed, including 1,756 children, in Israeli strikes on Gaza
The United Nations is hoping a second convoy of trucks will be sent into Gaza on Sunday
Convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian aid starts passing through the Rafah border crossing into the war-torn & besieged Gaza
Israeli aircraft strikes six homes in northern Gaza, martyring at least eight Palestinians & injuring 45 Palestinians
GAZA ( Web News )
The first of 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the war-torn and besieged Gaza Strip on October 21 through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
Israel worries that any fuel brought into Gaza could be used by Hamas to manufacture weapons and explosives.
The UN World Food Programme said the convoy included three trucks carrying 60 metric tons of emergency food, including canned tuna, wheat flour, pasta, canned beans and canned tomato paste.
The UN World Health Organization said it had sent supplies including trauma medicines for the stabilisation of injured patients, basic essential medicines and drugs for the treatment of chronic diseases.
US President Joe Biden had pushed for the trucks to be allowed to pass, during a solidarity visit to Israel on Wednesday.
He has said the first 20 trucks will be a test of a system for distributing aid without allowing Hamas to benefit, with UN agencies set to distribute it on the Gaza side of the border.
A convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian aid started passing through the Rafah border crossing Saturday into the war-torn and besieged Gaza, a security source and an Egyptian Red Crescent official told a foreign news agency.
Egyptian television showed several trucks entering the gate on the 15th day of the war between Israel and Hamas, the group which rules the Palestinian enclave of 2.4 million people.
“The relief aid convoy that is supposed to enter today includes 20 trucks that carry medicine, medical supplies, and a limited amount of food supplies (canned goods),” a statement from Hamas’s media office said on Saturday.
Humanitarian aid had been stuck at the Rafah border for days while crisis-struck Palestinians eagerly waited for the aid to pass through the gates of the border which is not controlled by Israel.
Israel pummelled the densely populated region despite Hamas releasing two American prisoners held in Gaza, providing a “sliver of hope” to desperate families.
According to Israeli sources, Hamas fighters killed at least 1,400 people, largely civilians, and took more than 200 people captive when it surged into Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7.
The release of mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan provided a rare “sliver of hope” because the captives’ fate has remained unclear, according to Mirjana Spoljaric, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Declaring himself “overjoyed” by the release, US President Joe Biden visited Israel a few days ago to show his support for the ally and to push for the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and says around 1,500 of the group’s fighters were left dead in clashes before its army regained control of the area under attack on October 7.
Biden said Friday he believes the attack was motivated partly by Saudi Arabia’s plan to recognise Israel.
Israel’s military activities in Gaza have martyred over 4,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians and children, and is massing troops on the border for an expected ground invasion of Gaza.
However, this full-blown land offensive carries risks, including hostages from Israel and around the world held by Hamas.
Two women, mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan, who were held hostage by Hamas, were released but in spite of that, violence in Gaza continued overnight.
Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, said the hostages were released in response to Qatari mediation efforts, “for humanitarian reasons, and to prove to the American people and the world that the claims made by Biden and his fascist administration are false and baseless”.
Despite the release of two hostages, Israeli aircraft struck six homes in northern Gaza early on Saturday, martyring at least eight Palestinians and injuring 45 Palestinians, media reported.
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the main Palestinian Christian denomination, said that Israeli forces had struck the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City, where hundreds of Christians and Muslims had sought refuge.
Israel has already told all civilians to evacuate the northern half of the Gaza Strip, which includes Gaza City. Many people have yet to leave saying they fear losing everything and have nowhere safe to go with southern areas also under attack.
Asked if Israel had so far followed the laws of war in its response, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated on Friday that Israel has the right to defend itself and make sure Hamas is not able to launch attacks again, Reuters reported.
“It’s important that operations be conducted in accordance with international law, humanitarian law, the law of war… There will be plenty of time to make assessments about how these operations were conducted but I can just say from the part of the United States, this continues to be important to us,” he added
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “fight until victory” in Gaza, signalling no pause in his military’s bombardment and expected invasion of the enclave after Hamas released two US hostages.
They were the first hostages confirmed by both sides in the conflict to be freed since Hamas gunmen burst into Israel, killing 1,400 people, mainly civilians, and taking around 200 hostages.
“Two of our abductees are at home. We are not giving up on the effort to return all abducted and missing people,” Netanyahu said in a statement released late Friday night. “At the same time, we’ll continue to fight until victory,” he added.
Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, speaking in front of a parliamentary committee, said achieving Israel’s objectives would not be quick or easy.
“We will topple the Hamas organisation. We will destroy its military and governing infrastructure. It’s a phase that will not be easy. It will have a price,” Gallant said.
He added that the subsequent phase would be more drawn out, but was aimed at achieving “a completely different security situation” with no threat to Israel from Gaza. “It’s not a day, it’s not a week, and unfortunately it’s not a month,” he said.
At least 4,385 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel began bombarding the Palestinian enclave, including 1,756 children, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said Saturday.
The ministry said another 13,561 people had been wounded in the Israeli strikes, which began on October 7.
The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is “catastrophic,” five United Nations agencies said Saturday, calling for more international help as conditions deteriorate in the densely populated coastal enclave.
Their statement came as Israel said it would step up its strikes in Gaza to increase pressure on Hamas, and its senior officers warned troops to be ready to enter the besieged Palestinian territory.
Since shock Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7 left 1,400 dead, Israel has launched devastating air and ground bombardments of Gaza. The Hamas authorities say 4,385 people have died.
The statement by the UN agencies came as the first aid trucks arrived in Gaza from Egypt Saturday.
“More than 1.6 million people in Gaza are in critical need of humanitarian aid,” said the statement from agencies including the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, the children’s agency.
“Children, pregnant women and the elderly remain the most vulnerable. Nearly half of Gaza’s population are children,” it added.
“Gaza was a desperate humanitarian situation before the most recent hostilities,” it added.
“It is now catastrophic. The world must do more.”
The other three agencies to sign the statement were the World Food Program, the development agency UNDP and the UNFPA, the population fund.
Since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, which left 1,400 dead, Israel has launched devastating air and ground bombardments of Gaza. The Hamas authorities say 4,385 people have been killed.
Israel has also massed tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks along the Gaza border for a widely anticipated ground invasion.
“We have to enter the next phase of the war in the best conditions, not according to what anyone tells us. From today, we are increasing the strikes and minimizing the danger,” military spokesman Admiral Daniel Hagari told a press conference.
His comments came hours after the first international aid to reach Gaza since October 7 crossed the border from Egypt into the besieged Palestinian territory.
In Israel, military commanders visited frontline units on Saturday.
“Gaza is densely populated, the enemy is preparing a lot of things there — but we are also preparing for them,” chief of staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi told one infantry brigade on a visit.
The United Nations is hoping a second convoy of trucks will be sent into Gaza on Sunday
The United Nations is hoping a second convoy of trucks will be sent into Gaza on Sunday under a light inspection system that will allow relief deliveries to scale up into next week, its humanitarian chief said.
A first convoy of 20 trucks arrived in Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt on Saturday, but efforts to deliver supplies to the besieged enclave have been held up by Israeli demands to verify aid.
The 20-truck convoy was announced by US President Joe Biden following a trip to Israel on Wednesday and was not subject to inspection of the kind that officials say will be needed for continuous deliveries.
“I’ve been hearing this afternoon – but we’re in negotiation on it right now – that we may get another convoy tomorrow, maybe even slightly bigger, 20 to 30 trucks,” UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said in an interview on the sidelines of a conference about Gaza in Cairo.
“It’s incredibly important that there is no gap in the aid going across the border,” he said. The UN says 100 trucks daily are needed to meet essential needs in Gaza, where Israel has imposed a “total siege” as it bombards the enclave in retaliation for a deadly incursion by Hamas militants.