Egypt-Gaza border crossing opens, letting desperately needed aid flow to Palestinians

RAFAH – The border crossing between Egypt and Gaza opened on Saturday to let desperately needed aid flow to Palestinians working wanting meals, drugs and water within the territory this is underneath an Israeli siege.

More than 200 vans wearing more or less 3,000 lots of aid, which were situated close to the crossing for days, started heading into Gaza.

Israel blockaded the territory and introduced waves of punishing airstrikes following the Oct. 7 rampage via Hamas militants on cities in southern Israel.

Many in Gaza, decreased to consuming one meal an afternoon and with out sufficient water to drink, are ready desperately for the aid. Hospital employees have been additionally in pressing want of clinical provides and gasoline for his or her turbines as they deal with massive numbers of other folks wounded within the bombings. Hundreds of overseas passport holders additionally waited to move from Gaza to Egypt to get away the struggle.

The opening got here hours after Hamas launched an American girl and her teenage daughter, the primary of a few 200 captives to be freed after the militant staff’s Oct. 7 incursion into Israel. It was once no longer instantly transparent if there was once any connection between the 2.

The unencumber got here amid rising expectancies of a ground offensive that Israel says is geared toward rooting out the militant staff, which has dominated Gaza for 16 years. Israel mentioned Friday it does no longer plan to take long-term keep an eye on over the tiny territory, house to some 2.3 million Palestinians.

Hamas mentioned it launched Judith Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie, for humanitarian causes in an settlement with Qatar, a Persian Gulf country that has ceaselessly served as a Mideast mediator.

The two were on a travel from their house in suburban Chicago to Israel to have fun Jewish vacations, the circle of relatives mentioned. They have been within the kibbutz of Nahal Oz, close to Gaza, on Oct. 7 when Hamas and different militants stormed into southern Israeli cities, killing loads and abducting 203 others.

The circle of relatives had heard not anything from them for the reason that assault and have been later informed via U.S. and Israeli officers that they have been being held in Gaza, Natalie’s brother Ben mentioned.

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with the 2 freed hostages and their family. The International Committee of the Red Cross, which transported the freed Americans from Gaza to Israel, mentioned their unencumber was once “a sliver of hope.”

Relatives of alternative captives welcomed the discharge and appealed for extra other folks to be freed.

Hamas mentioned in a remark that it was once running with mediators “to close the case” of hostages if security circumstances permit. The group added that it is committed to mediation efforts by Egypt, Qatar and other countries.

Qatar said it would continue its dialogue with Israel and Hamas in hopes of winning the release of all hostages “with the ultimate aim of de-escalating the current crisis and restoring peace.”

Associated Press reporters saw two large explosions in northern Gaza early Saturday, and rockets set off air raid sirens in a nearby Israeli town.

A potential Israeli ground assault is likely to lead to a dramatic escalation in casualties on both sides in urban fighting. More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed in the war — mostly civilians slain during the Hamas incursion. Palestinian militants have continued to launch unrelenting rocket attacks into Israel — more than 6,900 projectiles since Oct. 7, according to Israel.

More than 4,100 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry run by Hamas. That includes a disputed number of people who died in a hospital explosion earlier this week.

Speaking to lawmakers about Israel’s long-term plans for Gaza, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant laid out a three-stage plan that seemed to suggest Israel did not intend to reoccupy the territory it left in 2005.

First, Israeli airstrikes and “maneuvering” — a presumed reference to a ground attack — would aim to root out Hamas. Next will come a lower intensity fight to defeat remaining pockets of resistance. And, finally, a new “security regime” will be created in Gaza along with “the removal of Israel’s responsibility for life in the Gaza Strip,” Gallant said.

Gallant did not say who Israel expected to run Gaza if Hamas is toppled or what the new security regime would entail.

Israel occupied Gaza from 1967 until 2005, when it pulled up settlements and withdrew soldiers. Two years later, Hamas took over. Some Israelis blame the withdrawal from Gaza for the five wars and countless smaller exchanges of fire since then.

The humanitarian crisis has worsened for Gaza’s civilians every day since Israel halted entry of supplies. Two days after Israel announced a deal to allow Egypt to send in aid, the border remained closed Friday as Egypt repaired the Rafah crossing, damaged by Israeli strikes.

Over a million people have been displaced in Gaza. Many heeded Israel’s orders to evacuate from north to south within the sealed-off enclave on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. But Israel has continued to bomb spaces in southern Gaza the place Palestinians were informed to search protection, and a few seem to be going again to the north on account of bombings and difficult living conditions within the south.

Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals were rationing their dwindling resources.

Generators in Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest, were operating at the lowest setting to conserve fuel while providing power to vital departments such as intensive care, hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia said. Others worked in darkness. The lack of medical supplies and water make it difficult to treat the mass of victims from the Israeli strikes, he said.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it had received a threat from the Israeli military to bomb Al-Quds Hospital. It said Israel has demanded the immediate evacuation of the Gaza City hospital, which has more than 400 patients and thousands of displaced civilians who sought refuge on its grounds, it said.

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Magdy reported from Cairo and Krauss from Jerusalem. Associated Press journalist Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this record.