According to the Hamas-controlled health ministry, at least 3,785 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since Israel began bombing the coastal enclave.
According to the ministry, 1,524 children and 1,000 women have been murdered in Israel’s unrelenting air raids, with another 12,493 people injured.
Meanwhile, Palestinians in war-torn Gaza awaited assistance trucks promised in an agreement reached by US President Joe Biden with Egypt and Israel on Thursday, as the IDF struck more Hamas targets.
The conflict, triggered by a devastating Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 that officials estimated claimed more than 1,400 lives, has infuriated the Middle East and its Western supporters.
“The pace of death, of suffering, of destruction… cannot be exaggerated,” UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said about the situation in the crowded territory of 2.4 million people.
There are fears that Israel would launch a ground attack to crush Hamas and rescue Israeli and international detainees, the number of whom Israel revised up to 203 on Thursday.
On a brief visit to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet on Wednesday, Biden reaffirmed the US’s unwavering support for its long-time friend while also emphasizing the importance of addressing the plight of Palestinian civilians.
He said he had reached an agreement for an initial 20 trucks carrying relief supplies to pass through the closed Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza, with the first delivery expected as early as Friday.
“We want to get as many of the trucks out as possible,” Biden told reporters on Air Force One as he flew home, while warning that “if Hamas confiscates it or doesn’t let it get through… then it’s going to end”.
In the midst of the turmoil, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres traveled to Egypt on Thursday, where Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi also visited Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
The two countries, who were the first Arab states to normalize relations with Israel in 1979 and 1994, criticized Gaza’s “collective punishment” and warned of the conflict’s spread.
“If the war does not end,” it threatens to “throw the entire region into catastrophe,” according to a statement from Jordan’s royal court.
Sisi and Abdullah, viewed as major mediators between Israel and the Palestinians, were scheduled to meet with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and US Vice President Joe Biden in a four-way meeting.
But Amman cancelled the summit.
Desperate to escape
More than 100 trucks bringing humanitarian aid have been stranded for days on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, the only non-Israeli entry and exit point into Gaza.
Cairo has kept it closed so far, citing numerous Israeli strikes near the crossing and warning that Israel may be attempting to permanently force Palestinians out of Egypt’s Sinai desert.
Hundreds of Palestinians were waiting on the Gaza side, wanting to evacuate but mindful to stay at least 100 meters (300 feet) away in case of further Israeli bombing.
“We’re ready with our bags,” said one man who only gave his name as Mohammed, 40, and who said he works for a European institution.
He said he had been waiting “for three days with my family, in a house 10 minutes away from the crossing” but had received no information so far.
Majed, 43, who said he works with a German organisation, told AFP: “I came on my own this morning and, in case the crossing opens, I’d get my wife and children — they’re ready.”
Israel united
Biden revealed the aid truck deal after “brute” talks in Israel and a phone call with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. He was scheduled to address the country on Thursday about the Gaza and Ukraine wars.
Israel agreed to the arrangement while continuing its military campaign.
Its army announced on Thursday that it had destroyed hundreds of new Hamas targets, including missile launch sites and tunnels, and that “more than ten terrorists had been eliminated.”
After the bloodiest attack on Israeli soil, the army revealed Thursday that 1,403 people had died since the surprise onslaught on October 7, including at least 306 troops killed in operations to recover overrun communities and kibbutzim.
Biden, the first US president to visit Israel during the conflict, enthusiastically supported Israel but advised it not to overreact, citing mistakes done by Washington in its efforts to revenge 9/11.
On Thursday, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak became the latest foreign leader to pay a solidarity visit to Israel, meeting with Netanyahu and President Isaac Hertzog.
Before flying to Saudi Arabia for discussions with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he praised Israeli action while emphasizing the importance of getting aid into Gaza.
Netanyahu described Israel’s retaliation as a “just war,” adding, “I’ve never seen the people of Israel as united — more united — than they are now.”
However, increased cross-border fighting between Israel and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militia is raising fears of a second front.
As tensions rose, the United States and the United Kingdom recommended their people on Thursday to leave Lebanon while flights were still available.
Hospital strike
Since a devastating strike on a Gaza hospital facility on Tuesday, the Arab world has been united in its outrage and condemnation of Israel.
Both sides in the war have traded responsibility for the bloodshed, although neither the origin of the strike nor the death toll could be verified promptly or independently.
According to AFP pictures, the hit left scores of victims and burnt automobiles at the Ahli Arab hospital facility in northern Gaza.
Hamas claimed Israel of striking the hospital during its huge bombing campaign, and the Gaza health ministry reported 471 deaths.
Israel attributed the incident on a misfired Islamic Jihad missile, a claim backed up by Biden, who stated that the US Defense Department had assessed that “it’s highly unlikely that it was the Israelis.” It would have left a different imprint.”
The Israeli military has claimed that there was no huge impact crater, as is usual of its air strikes, and that the fuel from the stray rocket burst.
According to a senior European intelligence source, a maximum of 50 individuals were killed.
Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus has also disputed Hamas’s figure of 471 dead, asking “where are all the bodies?”
Hamas has dismissed Israel’s position, saying its “outrageous lies do not deceive anyone”.
It also slammed the United States, accusing it of being complicit in the ongoing strikes on Gaza.