GAZA: The first aid trucks arrived in war-torn Gaza from Egypt on Saturday, bringing urgent humanitarian relief to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave suffering what the UN chief labelled a “godawful nightmare”. The Zionist entity has vowed to destroy Hamas after the Islamist group carried out the deadliest attack in the country’s history on Oct 7.

The Zionist entity has retaliated with a relentless bombing campaign on Gaza that has killed more than 4,300 Palestinians, mainly civilians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. A Zionist siege has cut food, water, electricity and fuel supplies to the densely populated and long-blockaded territory of 2.4 million people, sparking fears of a humanitarian catastrophe.

AFP journalists on Saturday saw 20 trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent, which is responsible for delivering aid from various UN agencies, pass through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt into Gaza. The crossing — the only one into Gaza not controlled by the Zionist entity — closed again after the trucks passed. The lorries had been waiting for days on the Egyptian side after the Zionist entity agreed to a request from its main ally the United States to allow aid to enter.

UN chief Antonio Guterres warned Friday that the relief supplies were “the difference between life and death” for many Gazans, more than one million of whom have been displaced. “Much more” aid needs to be sent, he told a peace summit in Egypt on Saturday. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the aid and urged “all parties” to keep the Rafah crossing open. But a Hamas spokesman said “even dozens” of such convoys could not meet Gaza’s needs, especially as no fuel was being allowed in to help distribute the supplies to those in need.

Tens of thousands of Zionist troops have deployed to the Gaza border ahead of an expected ground offensive that officials have pledged will begin “soon”. A full-blown Zionist ground offensive carries many risks, including to the hostages Hamas took and whose fate is shrouded in uncertainty. So the release of two Americans among the hostages — mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan — offered a rare “sliver of hope”, said Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Almost half of Gaza’s residents have been displaced, and at least 30 percent of all housing in the territory has been destroyed or damaged, the United Nations says. Thousands have taken refuge in a camp set up in the city of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. Fadwa Al-Najjar said she and her seven children walked for 10 hours to reach the camp, at some points breaking into a run as missiles struck around them. “We saw bodies and limbs torn off and we just started praying, thinking we were going to die,” she told AFP.

In Al-Zahra in central Gaza, Rami Abu Wazna was struggling to take in the destruction wreaked by Zionist missile strikes. “Even in my worst nightmares, I never thought this could be possible,” he said. The Zionist entity’s operation will take not “a day, nor a week, nor a month” and will result in “the end of (the Zionist entity’s) responsibilities in the Gaza Strip”, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned on Friday.

The United States has moved two aircraft carriers into the eastern Mediterranean to deter Iran or Lebanon’s Hezbollah, both Hamas allies, amid fears of a wider conflagration. Fire across the Zionist entity’s border with Lebanon continued overnight, with one Zionist soldier killed, Zionist public radio said. The military said it hit Hezbollah targets after rocket and missile fire. Violence has also flared in the West Bank, where 84 Palestinians have been killed since Oct 7, according to the Palestinian health ministry. – AFP