First aid delivery due into besieged Gaza Strip via Rafah in ‘the next day or so’: UN
The first aid delivery into the besieged Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt should take place “in the next day or so,” the United Nations said Friday.
“We are in deep and advanced negotiations with all relevant sides to ensure that an aid operation in Gaza starts as quickly as possible… a first delivery is due to start in the next day or so,” the UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said, quoted by his spokesman Jens Laerke in Geneva.
Laerke told reporters: “I do not have an exact time for when these movements will take place, of course, with the hope that they can begin as soon as possible, in a way that is safe, secure and hopefully sustained.”
“We need to have the mechanism in place whereby this can be driven into southern Gaza. That does not take away from our call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”
Desperately needed international aid piled up Friday in Egypt near Gaza, with Palestinians in dire need of food and water after relentless bombing by Israel, still reeling from the bloodiest attack in its history.
The UN says more than one million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced and that the humanitarian situation is worsening by the day.
Egyptian state-linked broadcaster Al Qahera News had said the Rafah crossing – the only route into Gaza – would open on Friday, but Cairo later said it needed more time to repair roads.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the militant group launched a massive attack from the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.
In response, Israeli war planes have levelled entire city blocks in Gaza in preparation for a ground invasion they say is coming soon. More than 3,785 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have died in the bombing, according to the latest toll from the Hamas-run health ministry.
More than 1 million Palestinians, roughly half of Gaza’s population, have fled homes in the north and Gaza City after Israel told them to evacuate.
The airstrikes early Thursday continued across the entire territory, including in areas in the south that Israel had declared as “safe zones.”
The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that limited humanitarian aid would be allowed into Gaza from Egypt following a request from US President Joe Biden.
The war that began on October 7 after Hamas militants stormed into Israel, and Israel vowed to destroy the militant group, has become the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides.
The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Thursday that 3,785 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 12,500 others have been wounded.
More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly in the initial attack. An Israeli military spokesperson said Thursday that the families of 206 people believed to have been captured by Hamas and taken into Gaza had been notified.
Israel plans to evacuate residents from the town of Kiryat Shmona near its border with Lebanon, the Defense Ministry said on Friday.
Residents of the town near the border, across which Israeli troops and militants in Lebanon have been exchanging fire, will be moved to state-subsidized guesthouses, the ministry said.
An Israeli airstrike on Friday targeted three Hezbollah militants near the Lebanese border, Israel’s military said.
“Three Hezbollah terrorists were identified in the area of the border with Lebanon. IDF (Israel Defense Forces) aircraft struck the terrorists,” it said.
“In addition, a short while ago, IDF snipers opened fire toward gunmen that were identified operating in the area of the border with Lebanon.”
The Lebanese army said a journalist was killed by Israeli gunfire on Thursday in a southern Lebanon border area where Israel’s forces and the Lebanese Hezbollah had a heavy exchange of fire.
Israel’s military said earlier that its forces had targeted Hezbollah infrastructure and struck three people who attempted to launch anti-tank missiles at Israel. The military, asked about the Lebanese army’s account, said it was investigating the matter.