The first aid trucks yesterday arrived in the war-torn Gaza Strip from Egypt, bringing humanitarian relief to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave suffering what the head of the UN labeled a “godawful nightmare.”
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the Islamist militant group carried out the deadliest attack in the country’s history on Oct. 7.
Hamas militants killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians who were shot, mutilated or burnt to death on the first day of the raid, and took more than 200 hostages, Israeli officials said.
Photo: AFP
Israel says that about 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed in clashes before its army regained control of the area under attack.
Israel has retaliated with a heavy bombing campaign on Gaza that has killed thousands and cut food, water, electricity and fuel supplies to the densely populated and long-blockaded territory of 2.4 million people, sparking fears of a humanitarian catastrophe.
Agence France-Presse journalists yesterday saw 20 trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent Society, which is responsible for delivering aid from various UN agencies, pass through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt into Gaza.
The crossing — the only one into Gaza not controlled by Israel — closed again after the trucks passed.
The trucks had been waiting for days on the Egyptian side after Israel agreed to allow aid to enter following a request from its top ally the US.
UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said the convoy “must not be the last” and that the delivery would start “a sustainable effort to provide essential supplies” to Gaza.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday said that the aid was “the difference between life and death” for many Gazans, more than 1 million of whom have been displaced.
“Much more” aid needs to be sent, he told a peace summit in Egypt yesterday.
“The time has come for action to end this godawful nightmare,” he said, calling for a “humanitarian ceasefire.”
Israel’s military campaign against Hamas has leveled entire city blocks in Gaza, killing more than 4,300 Palestinians, mostly civilians, the Hamas-run health ministry said.
Israeli troops are massed on the Gaza border ahead of an expected ground invasion that officials have pledged will begin “soon.”
A full-blown Israeli land offensive carries many risks, including to the more than 200 hostages Hamas took during their raid and whose fate is shrouded in uncertainty.
So the release of the first two hostages — American mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan — offered a rare “sliver of hope,” International Committee of the Red Cross president Mirjana Spoljaric said.
US President Joe Biden said he was “overjoyed” and thanked Qatar, which hosts Hamas’ political bureau, for its mediation in securing the release.
He said he was working “around the clock” to win the return of other Americans being held.
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