Gaza aid ‘in next day or so’ as Israel girds for offensive

Rafah, Palestinian Territories – AFP

Trucks of international aid for Gaza should be rolling “in the next day or so”, the United Nations said Friday, with Palestinians desperate for life-saving supplies after sustained bombing from Israel.

Some 175 lorries crammed with vital medicines, food, and water stretched into the distance at the Rafah crossing with Egypt, which has removed concrete roadblocks and is scrambling to repair the route into besieged Gaza — the only one not controlled by Israel.

Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the group launched an unprecedented raid from the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing at least 1,400 people, according to Israeli officials.

Hamas gunmen also took some 200 people prisoners, including foreigners from around two dozen countries, ranging from Paraguay to Tanzania. The majority are still alive, the Israeli army said Friday.

In response, Israeli bombers have levelled entire city blocks in Gaza in preparation for a ground invasion they say is coming soon. The Hamas-run health ministry said 4,137 Palestinians have died in the onslaught.

Israeli jets pounded more than 100 Hamas targets in Gaza overnight, the army said, with AFP reporters hearing loud explosions and witnessing plumes of smoke billowing from the northern Gaza Strip.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told some of the tens of thousands of personnel preparing the ground invasion that “the order will come soon.”

– ‘Beyond catastrophic’ –

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited the Rafah crossing to personally oversee preparations, as workmen operating bulldozers on the Gazan side battled to make the road passable.

A spokesman for UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths told reporters in Geneva a first delivery was due “in the next day or so”, following a deal clinched by US President Joe Biden to allow 20 trucks of aid for civilians.

Medicine, water purifiers and blankets were being unloaded at El Arish airport near Gaza, an AFP reporter saw, with Ahmed Ali, head of the Egyptian Red Crescent, saying he was getting “two to three planes of aid a day”.

But World Health Organization emergencies director Michael Ryan said Biden’s 20-truck deal was “a drop in the ocean of need” and that 2,000 trucks were required.

The UN says more than one million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people are displaced, with the humanitarian situation “beyond catastrophic” and deteriorating daily.

Refugees from northern Gaza told harrowing tales of bombs, profiteering, and extreme temperatures as whole families trekked on foot to flee the violence.

Both sides traded blame for deadly strikes, the latest coming at a church compound in Gaza late Thursday.

The Hamas-controlled interior ministry said several people sheltering at the church were killed and wounded, blaming an Israeli strike.

The Israeli army acknowledged a wall of the church had been damaged in one of its air strikes targeting a “command and control centre belonging to a Hamas terrorist” and said the incident was “under review”.

“This place is dedicated for praying, a place of love and peace,” said witness Abu Khalil Jahshan. “There is no safe place here in Gaza.”

– ’45 of us gone’ – 

Meanwhile, Gaza students in Egypt told AFP of their nightmare watching events unfold from far away.

Haya Shehab, 21, learned from an Instagram post that her extended family’s home had been bombed, killing 45 people — dozens of them cousins.

“Just like that, 45 of us gone,” said Shehab, who studies at a private university in Cairo.