International humanitarian aid deliveries have entered the Gaza Strip for the first time since war broke out after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on southern Israel, but the number of trucks able to cross the border has been limited.
Twenty trucks loaded with medicine, food, and medical equipment crossed from Egypt Saturday morning. This as thousands are seeking to leave through the same Rafah crossing but have been prevented. Israeli media is widely reporting Saturday that there are now 210 confirmed hostages being held by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
"As the trucks made their way through the Rafah border, hundreds of people gathered at the Gaza side, hoping to escape the violence that has beset the Palestinian territory," Al Jazeera describes. "It was unclear whether anyone would be able to leave."
Amid continuing Israeli airstrikes on Gaza which have increased to an unprecedented pace (Israeli officials have made mention of 6,000 bombs in the opening six days), some one million Palestinians have moved to the southern half of the strip, while Israeli airpower decimates the north, particularly buildings, infrastructure, and even hospitals.
External water, electricity, and food supplies have long been cut off, and the population is not able to leave what many commentators have called a densely populated "open air prison".
President Biden while in Tel Aviv last week had called for humanitarian aid to urgently be let into Gaza, even as he said the US fully backs Israel's "right to defend itself" - and denied that Israel was behind the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital bombing.
The WHO has said of the humanitarian aid trucks entering Gaza: "These supplies are a lifeline for severely injured people or those battling chronic illnesses, who have endured a harrowing two weeks of limited access to care and severe shortages of medicines and medical supplies."
Previously Israel had asserted aid would be blocked until all hostages were freed, but Washington and international pressure may have led to Israel allowing limited aid in...
Israel said there would be no pause in its siege of Gaza for aid or evacuations until all its hostages were freed, as Washington urged it to protect civilians and the Red Cross warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the enclave https://t.co/88CZk1lMrC pic.twitter.com/w9luePKcFz
— Reuters (@Reuters) October 12, 2023
Both the US and Israeli officials have previously warned Hamas not to steal or touch the aid, warning that it will be cut off again if this happens.
Meanwhile, since Thursday night there have been widespread reports that Israel's ground forces have been given a green light by the Netanyahu government to enter Gaza, but this still doesn't appear to have happened with any degree of full force. The Biden administration is trying to convince Netanyahu to stall further, to buy more time to negotiate hostage releases, particularly after two US citizens from Chicago were freed on Friday with the mediation of Qatar.
Things have continued heating up on the Lebanese border with Hezbollah...
IDF publishes footage showing a strike against an anti-tank guided missile squad in southern Lebanon that launched a missile at Margaliot, wounding two Thai workers. pic.twitter.com/v42atpGZJG
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) October 21, 2023
The IDF says it is still training and preparing "for the next phase of the war" ahead of the expected ground assault. The army has announced that troops are "conducting training in accordance with the approved operational plans."
Currently, there's an unknown number of American and foreign passport holders still in Gaza, possibly in the hundreds or thousands, and the US has reportedly been seeking arrangements to facilitate their exit.
"If the border is opened, we do not know how long it will remain open for foreign citizens to depart Gaza," a US Embassy-State Dept. statement on X has said. The Europeans are working to get their citizens (dual nationals) out as well.
