Rafah: At least 4,137 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel began bombarding the Palestinian enclave, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said Friday. The ministry said another 13,162 people have been wounded in the Israeli strikes, which have been ongoing since October 7. Meanwhile, the United Nations said that though international aid to Gaza needed to move as quickly as possible from Egypt to alleviate the humanitarian crisis, the process is slow as the roads are destructed in Israeli strikes.
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, still reeling from its bloodiest-ever attack.
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.
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.
Over one million people displaced in Gaza
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.
Mother of seven Fadwa Al-Najjar walked for 10 hours with her family from northern Gaza to reach a UN camp in the southern town of Khan Yunis, saying she saw cars hit by a strike on the road just in front of them.
"We saw bodies and limbs torn off and we just started praying, thinking we were going to die," she said.
Fight like lions, Israeli PM urges soldiers
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the Islamist militant group launched an unprecedented raid from the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians shot, mutilated or burned to death, according to Israeli officials. 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.
Embracing front-line soldiers and clad in body armour, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged them to "fight like lions" and "win with full force".Fists clenched and voice raised, Netanyahu told cheering troops: "We will deal harsh blows to our enemies in order to achieve victory."
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told some of the tens of thousands of personnel preparing the ground invasion that "the order will come soon."
On the other side of the conflict, the full horror of what Israel suffered on October 7 and following days was still emerging, as traumatised residents recounted their stories.
Shachar Butler, a security chief at the Nir Oz kibbutz, where Hamas militants killed or kidnapped a quarter of the 400 residents, recalls more than a dozen gunmen spraying bullets indiscriminately and lobbing grenades at homes.
"It's unimaginable. Anytime someone tried to touch my window, I shot him. The people who came out got kidnapped, killed, executed, slaughtered," the 40-year-old told AFP as part of a trip organised by the Israeli military.
Butler estimated as many as 200 militants attacked the kibbutz, entering from three sides before going house-to-house. Homes there were still charred with burned personal belongings strewn everywhere.
