GAZA STRIP, (Palestinian Territories): Palestinians in war-torn Gaza on Thursday eagerly awaited the arrival of aid trucks promised in a deal struck by US President Joe Biden, as Israel’s military kept up its bombardment of targets in the Hamas-run enclave.
Egyptian state-linked broadcaster Al Qahera News said the Rafah border crossing — the only one in and out of besieged Gaza not controlled by Israel — would open on Friday. More than 100 trucks carrying aid have been queuing for days on the Egyptian side of the border, with the United Nations and others calling for urgent help for besieged civilians.
On a visit to Cairo, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said there needed to be “rapid, unimpeded humanitarian access” after dire warnings about the impact of the Israeli blockade.
Biden to visit Israel as Gaza war sparks humanitarian crisis
“We need food, water, medicine and fuel now. We need it at scale and we need it to be sustained, it is not one small operation that is required,” he added.
The emergencies director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Michael Ryan, said aid needed to get in “every day”, calling an initial 20 trucks — the deal struck by Biden with Israel and Egypt — “a drop in the ocean of need right now”.
Gaza has been hit by a relentless barrage of Israeli fire in retaliation for a Hamas militant attack on October 7, which Israel said killed at least 1,400 people, most of them civilians. Some 1,500 Islamist fighters were killed in clashes before the army regained control, the Israeli military said.
Israeli bombing since has killed at least 3,785 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the health ministry.
Entire city blocks have been levelled, displacing more than one million of the 2.4 million population, the UN has said.
“The pace of death, of suffering, of destruction… cannot be exaggerated,” said UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths.
There are fears of worse to come if Israel launches an anticipated ground invasion to destroy Hamas and rescue Israeli and foreign hostages, whose known number Israel on Thursday revised up to 203.
Biden, on a flying visit to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet on Wednesday, reiterated strong US support for its long-time ally but also stressed the need to address the plight of Palestinian civilians.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Thursday condemned what they said was the “collective punishment” of Gazans.
Comments
Comments are closed.