Across besieged Gaza, food shortages are causing desperation. With trucks full of humanitarian goods unable to cross the Rafah border, many in Gaza have no running water or enough food. Residents said they are eating whatever morsels they could find from before the war started and that they are scared about the coming days. The shortages are most visible in U.N. shelters, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have taken refuge after fleeing intensifying bombardment, and in houses where dozens of family members are sheltering. Hourslong lines snaked from bakeries where Palestinians waited anxiously to get basic supplies. “I have been waiting for 10 hours to get bread … and of course this amount is not enough,” said Ahmad Salah in Deir al-Balah, where he said he had to feed 20-30 family members. “This is a painful suffering for us.”
The Associated Press has the story:
Israeli strikes on Gaza intensify, humanitarian crisis deepens
Newslooks- (AP)
Diplomatic efforts to arrange a ceasefire to let aid reach the besieged Gaza Strip failed on Monday, and Israel ordered the evacuation of villages in a strip of territory near its border with Lebanon, raising fears the war could spread to a new front.
Israel has vowed to annihilate the Hamas movement that rules Gaza, after its fighters burst across the barrier surrounding the enclave on Oct. 7, gunning down 1,300 Israelis, mainly civilians, in the deadliest day in Israel’s 75-year history.
It has put Gaza, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, under a total blockade and pounded it with unprecedented air strikes, and is widely expected to launch a ground assault. Gaza authorities say at least 2,750 people have been killed there, including mainly civilians.
According to the United Nations, a million Gazans have already been driven from their homes. Power is out, sanitary water is scarce, and the last fuel for emergency generators could be used up within a day.
Residents said overnight air strikes were the heaviest yet, and the bombing carried on through the day.
“We were inside the house when we found bodies scattering, flying in the air – bodies of children who have nothing to do with the war,” said resident Abed Rabayaa, whose neighbor’s house in Khan Younis, the main city in the southern part of the enclave, was hit overnight.
In the biggest sign yet that the war could spread to a new front, Israel ordered the evacuation on Monday of 28 villages in a two km-deep zone near its Lebanese border. Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement said it had targeted five Israeli positions.
The past week has already seen the deadliest clashes in the border area since a major 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, which, like Hamas, is an ally of Iran.
In a speech to parliament, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israelis should prepare for a long battle, and delivered a warning to Tehran and Hezbollah in which he referred to the 2006 war, which displaced a million Lebanese.
“Now we are focused on one target: to unite forces and charge forward to victory. This requires determination because victory will take time,” he said.
“And I have a message for Iran and Hezbollah, don’t test us in the north. Don’t make the same mistake you once made. Because today the price you will pay will be much heavier.”
Egypt said on Monday that Israel was not cooperating with delivery of aid into Gaza and evacuations of foreign passport holders via the only entry it does not wholly control, leaving hundreds of tonnes of supplies stuck.
Cairo says the Rafah crossing, a potentially vital opening for desperately-needed supplies into the Israeli-besieged Palestinian enclave, is not officially closed but was made inoperable due to Israeli air strikes on the Gaza side.
As Israel’s bombardment and siege of Gaza has intensified, the territory’s 2.3 million residents have been left without power, pushing health and water services to the brink of collapse, with fuel for hospital generators running low.
“There is an urgent need to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said, adding that talks with Israel had not been fruitful.
“Until now the Israeli government has not taken a position on opening the Rafah crossing from the Gaza side to allow the entrance of assistance and exit of citizens of third countries.” On the ground at Rafah, one source said the Egyptian side of the crossing was ready.
Shoukry said Egypt aimed to restore regular access through Rafah, including for Palestinians seeking medical treatment or normal travel. Shoukry added that Egypt could allow medical evacuations and let in some Gazans with permission to travel.
U.S. officials were hoping that Rafah would operate for a few hours late on Monday, White House spokesman John Kirby said, adding that earlier hopes for opening the crossing had been dashed.
Hamas-affiliated radio station Aqsa said Israeli shelling hit the Rafah crossing area again on Monday. The Egyptian side of the border appeared deserted on Monday afternoon, with aid supplies being stockpiled in the nearby city of Al Arish.
“It is critical that life-saving assistance is allowed to move through the Rafah crossing without delay,” U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said in a statement, announcing that its chief Martin Griffiths would travel to Cairo on Tuesday.
Gazans have been under siege since Israel launched its most intense bombardment and blockade ever following a devastating cross-border assault by Islamist Hamas militants on Oct. 7.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced within Gaza, with some taking cars and suitcases south towards the Rafah crossing but others heading back north after failing to find refuge.
Hundreds of tonnes of aid from NGOs and several countries were waiting in Al Arish for conditions to allow entry to Gaza.
“We are waiting for the green light for the aid to enter and dozens of volunteers are ready at any time,” a Red Crescent official in northern Sinai said.
Movement of goods and people through Rafah has been tightly controlled under a blockade of Gaza imposed by Israel and Egypt since Hamas took control of the enclave in 2007, and only registered travelers can cross.
‘SHELLING, CRYING, SCREAMING, BLOOD’
The 10 days of strikes so far have failed to eliminate Hamas’ capability to fire rockets into Israel, where warning sirens sounded. Hamas said it fired a barrage at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
“There is an urgent need to alleviate the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told reporters, adding talks with Israel on opening Rafah for aid had so far been fruitless.
Washington has also been focusing on getting the crossing briefly opened to allow some of the few hundred Gazans with U.S. passports to leave.
There has been no public talk, however, of Egypt accepting a mass influx of refugees, meaning the vast majority of Gazans are unlikely to be offered a route out. Egypt and other Arab states say a mass exodus would be unacceptable because it would amount to the expulsion of Palestinians from their land.
Those trying to reach the crossing inside Gaza described the route as perilous and under attack.
“On our way to the crossing they shelled Rafah Street and we started screaming,” said one resident near the crossing, Hadeel Abu Dahoud. “Nowhere is safe in Gaza.” Wherever we go there’s shelling, shelling, crying, screaming, blood.”
Israel has said more than a million people in the northern half of the enclave must head to the southern half for their safety. While tens of thousands have complied and fled, the United Nations says there is no way to move so many people without causing a humanitarian catastrophe; Hamas has told them to stay put.
With each day of air strikes, Gazans have been clawing at the rubble of flattened buildings with bare hands to rescue neighbours and recover the dead, with virtually no mechanical equipment to clear away the wreckage.
Civil emergency officer Abid Saqir told reporters at one bomb site that there were at least 1,000 bodies trapped under rubble at locations across the enclave.
Mohammad Abu Saleema, director of the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, said those seriously wounded must be sent to hospitals outside Gaza or there would be no room for more wounded to be treated.
Cairo says the Rafah crossing is not officially closed but is inoperable due to Israeli strikes on the Gaza side. U.S. officials were still hoping Rafah would operate for a few hours later on Monday, White House spokesman John Kirby said, though earlier hopes had been dashed.
Early on Monday, two Egyptian security sources had told reporters a temporary ceasefire in southern Gaza had been agreed to last several hours to facilitate aid and evacuations at Rafah. However, Egyptian state TV later quoted an unnamed, high-level source as saying that no truce had been agreed. Israel and Hamas both denied reports of a deal to open the crossing.
“We are waiting for the green light for the aid to enter and dozens of volunteers are ready at any time,” a Red Crescent official in northern Sinai said.
