Besieged Palestinians await aid trucks as Israel pounds Gaza

Palestinian Territories – AFP

Palestinians in the war-torn Gaza Strip desperately await the arrival of aid trucks promised under a deal US President Joe Biden struck with Egypt and Israel.

The war on Gaza — sparked by the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel that officials said has claimed more than 1,400 lives — has set off a wave of fury across the Middle East against Israel and its Western allies. It has claimed at least 3,500 lives in Gaza, health ministry said. Entire city blocks have been levelled, water, food and power have been cut off, and over one million people have been displaced.

“The pace of death, of suffering, of destruction… cannot be exaggerated,” the top UN humanitarian official Martin Griffiths said about the crowded territory home to 2.4 million people.

There are fears of worse to come if Israel launches its anticipated ground invasion aimed at destroying Hamas and rescuing Israeli and foreign prisoners, 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 the long-time ally but also stressed the need to address the plight of Palestinian civilians.

He said he had agreed a deal for an initial 20 trucks carrying relief good to cross the shuttered Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza, with the first deliveries expected Friday at the earliest.

“We want to get as many of the trucks out as possible,” Biden said aboard Air Force One on his flight back, while warning that “if Hamas confiscates it or doesn’t let it get through… then it’s going to end”.

Amid the flaring crisis, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was headed to Egypt on Thursday where President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was also due to host Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

Jordan said the two leaders would discuss ways “to stop the Israeli aggression on Gaza”, a day after Amman snubbed Biden by cancelling a four-way summit with Sisi and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.

– Desperate to escape –

More than 100 trucks carrying aid goods have been queued for days on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, the only entry or exit point to Gaza not controlled by Israel.

Cairo has so far kept it closed, pointing to repeated Israeli strikes near the crossing and voicing fears that Israel may be hoping to permanently drive Palestinians out and into Egypt’s Sinai desert.

On the Gaza side, scores of people were again waiting, desperate to flee, but careful to keep a distance of about 100 metres (300 feet) in case of new Israeli bombardment.

“We’re ready with our bags,” said one man who only gave his name as Mohammed, 40, and who said he works for a European institution.

He said he had been waiting “for three days with my family, in a house 10 minutes away from the crossing” but had received no information so far.

Majed, 43, who said he works with a German organisation, told AFP that “I came on my own this morning and, in case the crossing opens, I’d get my wife and children — they’re ready.”

– Hospital strike –

The Arab world has been united in anger and condemnation of Israel since a deadly strike hit a Gaza hospital compound on Tuesday.

Both sides in the war have traded blame for the bloody carnage, but neither the provenance of the strike nor the death toll could be immediately or independently verified.

The strike left scores of bodies and charred cars at the Ahli Arab hospital compound in northern Gaza, AFP images showed.

Hamas charged that Israel hit the hospital during its massive bombing campaign and Gaza’s health ministry put the death toll at 471.

Israel blamed a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket, a claim backed by Biden.

Hamas has dismissed Israel’s position, saying its “outrageous lies do not deceive anyone”.

It also slammed the United States, accusing it of being complicit in the ongoing strikes on Gaza.