'Drop in the ocean' aid reaches Gaza but ceasefire indispensable

Only 20 trucks carrying aid crossed into Gaza on Saturday, the first convoy of humanitarian supplies since Israel began a devastating siege 12 days ago and after further heavy Israeli bombardment overnight that killed dozens of Palestinians.

The UN called it a "drop in the ocean" of what is needed and warned that even if aid supplies do increase over the coming days, there is no alternative to reaching a ceasefire for avoiding a humanitarian catastrophe, BBC reported.

Referring to continued Israeli bombardment on Gaza, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, told an Egypt-hosted peace summit yesterday that the time has come for "action to end this godawful nightmare" and called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, according to The Guardian.

"I appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire now," he said.

At the summit, Arab leaders dubbed Israel's retaliatory strikes on Gaza "collective punishment" and stressed that a stable and secure outcome to the Israel-Palestinian conflict must be built on a two-state solution.

The Cairo Peace Summit, a gathering that aims to find ways to prevent the Israel-Hamas conflict, now entering its third week, seeks to prevent the conflict from widening, reports Bloomberg.

Arab presidents and royalty plus top officials from the Middle East, Europe and Asia as well as Canada and Brazil were on hand. The US and Israel weren't present – leaving it unclear if any resolution adopted at the summit would be implemented.

Gaza's Health Ministry said on Saturday Israel's air and missile strikes had killed at least 4,385 Palestinians, nearly half of them children, while over a million of the territory's people have been displaced since 7 October. Over 13,000 people have been injured according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Overnight, Israeli fighter jets struck a "large number of Hamas terror targets throughout" Gaza including command centres and combat positions inside multi-storey buildings, the military said in a statement, Reuters reported.

Gaza's health ministry and Hamas media said Israeli aircraft had overnight targeted several family houses across Gaza, killing at least 50 people and injuring dozens.

Hamas said it fired rockets towards Israeli's biggest city Tel Aviv on Saturday in response to those deaths. The Israeli military reported a fresh salvo of rockets from Gaza against southern Israeli border communities before dawn. There was no immediate word of any casualties.

A senior Israeli military official who declined to be named said Israel had killed "a few thousand" Hamas militants in the war. "It is not enough. We need to take more ... We are looking at a long campaign. They are already hurting, but there is still some way to go," he said.

Gaza's children are showing ever more signs of trauma two weeks into Israel's intense bombardment, parents and psychiatrists in the tiny, crowded enclave say, with no safe place to hide from the falling bombs and little prospect of respite.

Children make up about half of Gaza's 2.3 million population, living under near constant bombardment with many packed into temporary shelters in UN-run schools after fleeing their homes with little food or clean water.

"Children ... have started to develop serious trauma symptoms such as convulsions, bed-wetting, fear, aggressive behaviour, nervousness, and not leaving their parents' sides," said Gaza psychiatrist Fadel Abu Heen.

Only 3% of pre-war aid supplies

Palestinian officials said the first aid supplies in 20 trucks were only three percent of what used to get into Gaza every day before the crisis.

Before the outbreak of conflict, an average of about 450 aid trucks were arriving daily in Gaza.

They were also disappointed that fuel supplies were not included in the aid convoy.

"Excluding the fuel from the humanitarian aid means the lives of patients and injured will remain at risk. Gaza hospitals are running out of the basic requirements to pursue medical interventions," the Gaza health ministry said.

The United Nations said the convoy included life-saving supplies would be received and distributed by the Palestinian Red Crescent, with the consent of Hamas, which rules Gaza.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the opening but echoed a warning from Israel that no aid should end up in Hamas hands.

UN officials say at least 100 trucks daily are needed and that any aid operation must be sustainable at scale – a tall order now with Israel carrying out bombardments day and night that have wrecked entire populated districts.

First two hostages released

Israel kept up air strikes on targets around Gaza in Saturday's early hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to "fight until victory" following the release of the first two hostages by Hamas.

Hamas on Friday freed Americans Judith Tai Raanan, 59, and her daughter Natalie, 17, who were among around 210 kidnapped in the assault on southern Israel by Hamas this month. Hamas said it acted in part "for humanitarian reasons" in response to Qatari mediation.

However, Hamas said on Saturday it would not discuss the fate of Israeli army captives until Israel ends its "aggression" on the Gaza Strip, one of the world's most densely populated places.

"Our stance with regards to Israeli army captives is clear: it's related to a (possible) exchange of prisoners, and we will not discuss it until Israel ends its aggression on Gaza and Palestinians," Hamas official Osama Hamdan said in a televised press conference.

Hamas gunmen seized the hostages when they burst out of the blockaded enclave into Israel and killed 1,400 people, mainly civilians, in a shock rampage, the deadliest single attack on Israelis since the country's founding 75 years ago.

Gaza children showing more signs of trauma

"Our children suffer a lot at night. They cry all night, they pee themselves without meaning to and I don't have time to clean up after them, one after the other," said Tahreer Tabash, a mother of six children sheltering in a school.

"When there's an explosion or any target getting hit nearby they are always screaming, always frightened. We try to calm the younger ones, try telling them, 'Don't worry, it's just fireworks'. But the older ones understand what's going on," said Ibrahim al-Agha, an engineer sheltering in the house.

A 2022 report by aid group Save the Children found the psychosocial wellbeing of children in Gaza at "alarmingly low levels" after 11 days of fighting in 2021, leaving half of all Gaza children in need of support.

Mental health experts in Gaza have said there is no such thing there as post traumatic stress disorder because the trauma in the enclave is continuous, with repeated bouts of armed conflict stretching back nearly two decades.

US President Joe Biden had said earlier this week that agreement had been reached for 20 aid trucks to enter via southern Gaza Strip's Rafah border point with Egypt.