Since the Hamas assault, Gaza has received first aid vehicles, and the Egypt border momentarily opened

Since the Hamas assault, Gaza has received first aid vehicles, and the Egypt border momentarily opened

The first convoy of trucks delivering humanitarian supplies to reach Gaza since the violent Hamas strikes on Israel on October 7 occurred on that day.-

Before Egypt closed the border once again on Saturday morning, 20 trucks carrying medical supplies and some food, according to Egyptian authorities, entered Gaza. The authorities said that residents of the United States and other foreign nations stranded in Gaza were unable to enter Egypt.

The more than two million people living in Gaza, roughly half of whom have been forced out of their homes due to ongoing bombardment by the Israeli military, were cautioned by humanitarian organizations that Saturday's assistance supplies fell well short of what was required to keep them alive.

Four trucks from the World Health Organization were part of the convoy that entered Gaza; according to the organization, these vehicles included trauma medicine, equipment to treat up to 1,200 wounded persons, and medicines for 1,500 patients with chronic diseases. According to the WHO, it also supplied 300,000 individuals with basic necessities including medication and medical supplies for three months.

The WHO said that as hostilities intensify, "the supplies currently heading into Gaza will hardly begin to address the escalating health needs." Other vehicles were loaded with supplies coming from Qatar and the Egyptian Red Crescent.

The first assistance was delivered as global leaders gathered in Cairo to address the conflict between Israel and Hamas and the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza. Israel and the United States have said they won't attend the conference.

On the Gaza side of the border, hundreds of individuals with foreign passports gathered on Saturday in anticipation of being allowed to cross. A U.S. government official reportedly called retired American teacher Wafa al-Saqqa and advised her to be close to the border since it was unknown if foreigners would be permitted to enter Egypt.

Egypt has rejected calls to accept Palestinian refugees because it is concerned about its own security. Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, the president of Egypt, cautioned during his opening remarks at the meeting that expelling people from Gaza would jeopardize the Palestinians' effort to establish their own state.

"I want to reaffirm to everyone around the globe, in clear and unambiguous conditions of sale, and in a sincere expression of the will of every single Egyptian people, one by one, that a complete liquidation of the Palestinian cause, absent a just solution, will not happen," stated Sisi. In any scenario, Egypt will never be harmed in the process.

Two Americans who were taken captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip were freed on Friday. It was the first time that any of the nearly 200 captives abducted during Hamas' invasion on Israel on October 7 had been freed. Hamas is a militant group that the United States and the European Union both list as terrorist organizations.

According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, more than 1,400 Israelis were slain by Hamas militants, along with victims or missing persons from more than 40 other nations.

According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, 4,137 Palestinians have died and more than 13,000 have been wounded as a result of Israeli bombings since October 7. The UN estimates that 1.4 million people in Gaza have been forced to leave their homes.

Judith Raanan and her daughter Natalie, who had been visiting relatives in the kibbutz Nahal Oz at the time of the assault, were named as the captives released on Friday by Israel. The ladies are from the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois.

Qatar facilitated their release. Majid al Ansari, a spokesperson for the nation's foreign ministry, said Qatar will keep up communication with Israel and Hamas in the hopes of negotiating the release of further captives.

According to U.S. and international sources, Washington and the governments of Europe have been exerting pressure on Israel to delay a planned ground assault of Gaza in order to buy more time to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas.

Many nations have been attempting to use their relationships with Hamas to pressure the terrorist organization to free the hostages. Although Qatar's government had been "very helpful" in this regard, a U.S. official had emphasized the challenges in coming to a deal in light of Israel's ongoing shelling of Gaza and the escalating humanitarian catastrophe there.

Families of the hostages have also been putting pressure on Israel's government to reach a settlement with Hamas, and according to U.S. officials, Qatar has sent a warning to the Islamist organization that it would stop sending help to the Gaza Strip if any of the civilians it seized on October 7 are hurt.

Egyptian sources said that Israel had turned down a request from the Cairo administration to boost the number of assistance vehicles to 50 per day. The office of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, refused to comment. Requests for clarification from the Egyptian Foreign Affairs Ministry's spokesperson went unanswered.

The U.N. reported that Gaza had a complete energy outage for a tenth day on Saturday. Without power, the taps in the southern part of the enclave, where Israel claimed to have reopened the water supply, are still inoperable. People who consume contaminated water run the danger of contracting infectious diseases, the U.N. said.

According to data from Gaza's housing ministry, the U.N. estimated that at least 30% of all housing units in Gaza had already been destroyed or damaged.