Israeli forces continued their severe bombing of the Gaza Strip overnight, killing hundreds of Palestinians. And finally, on Saturday, October 21, the first trucks carrying crucial humanitarian supplies entered the territory from Egypt.
US President Joe Biden said on Friday, October 20, that he expected the first of 20 aid trucks to pass through Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt within the next 48 hours.
Emergency Aid Trucks Arrive to Gaza
After days of political haggling over conditions for delivering the assistance, witnesses say 15 of the 20 trucks have crossed into Gaza after being checked by the Palestinian Red Crescent and are waiting to make their way to beneficiaries in inhabited areas, as reported by Reuters.
Previously, the United Nations has warned of an impending humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where Israel's siege has led to a shortage of food, water, medication, and fuel for the territory's 2.3 million residents.
According to the UN, the Palestinian Red Crescent would receive and disperse the convoy's life-saving goods. Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist party that runs Gaza, has claimed that the shipment contained some food and medication but no gasoline.
Injured Palestinians, according to health professionals, are in danger because of a scarcity of fuel. Some healthcare facilities have halted operations due to a lack of fuel.
With Israel conducting deadly bombardments of the enclave day and night, UN officials believe at least 100 trucks per day are required to meet essential, life-saving requirements and that any relief effort must be viable at scale.
Hamas Releases Two American Captives
Prior to this, multiple sources indicated that Hamas freed two American hostages "for humanitarian reasons."
Israeli authorities have confirmed that Judith and Natalie Raanan, a mother and daughter from Evanston, Illinois, were among the freed captives. Reportedly, Hamas released the two women to the Red Cross. The two were freed due to Judith's poor state of health, as per Hamas representative.
A statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said, "The families headquarters congratulates the release of hostages from Hamas captivity. The continued holding of hostages is a war crime. Hundreds of families await the assistance of leaders of Arab states after Hamas' actions shocked the entire world."
This came after NBC News reported the previous week that Hamas was prepared to free its civilian detainees, including women and children.
Hamas has admitted that they do not have all the captives and that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an allied militant organization, has some of them.
In reaction to the prolonged fighting in Gaza and the imminent possibility of an Israeli ground operation, protests have erupted throughout the Arab region. Thousands of protesters across Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and the West Bank went to the streets after Friday prayers to voice their anger over Israel's involvement in the conflict with Hamas.
