Aid groups preparing to scale up relief work
Aid groups were preparing to scale up relief work, one of the many challenges ahead as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas entered its second day, reports the Associated Press (AP).
“When people get there, they’re going to find rubble. They’ll find that their homes and their neighbourhoods have been reduced to dust,” Unicef spokesperson Tess Ingram told the AP on Friday.
Unicef and its partners are urging Israel to reopen more crossings and allow aid to flow into Gaza more freely. Meanwhile, about 200 US troops arrived in Israel to help retrieve hostages and monitor the ceasefire.
Speaking from central Gaza, Ingram said:
A ceasefire alone is not enough.
Yes, it stops the killing and injuring of children, hopefully, but it also needs to ensure a surge of humanitarian aid that begins to address the tremendous damage that has been done over the past two years.
Cogat, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid, said that more than 500 trucks entered Gaza on Friday, although many crossings remain closed. With a declared famine still under way in parts of the strip, Unicef has 1,300 trucks ready to enter, with more on the way, Ingram said.
The aid is among the 170,000 metric tonnes that have been positioned in neighbouring countries awaiting permission from Israel to restart deliveries that have been suspended.
The days since the announcement of the ceasefire have moved swiftly. Israel’s military confirmed it had taken effect on Friday and said the 48 hostages still in Gaza would be freed on Monday. A UN official, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet public, said Israel also approved expanded aid deliveries starting Sunday.
Key events
Images on the newswires show aid arriving via trucks in Gaza today:
Taking advantage of the ceasefire, Raja Salmi walked back to her home in Gaza City, where weeks of Israeli bombardment and ground operations had destroyed entire neighbourhoods, said to harbour thousands of Hamas fighters.
“We walked for hours, and every step was filled with fear and anxiety for my home,” Salmi told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
When she reached the al-Rimal neighbourhood, she found her house destroyed. “It no longer exists. It’s just a pile of rubble,” she said, adding:
I stood before it and cried. All those memories are now just dust.
At al-Rantisi hospital in Gaza City, a facility for children and cancer patients, AFP footage showed wards reduced to heaps of overturned metal beds, gaping ceilings and scattered medical equipment.
“I don’t know what to say. The images speak louder than any words: destruction, destruction, and more destruction,” said Saher Abu al-Atta, a resident who had returned to the city.
Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan will meet Syrian officials, in Ankara on Sunday, the Turkish foreign ministry said.
Defence minister Yasar Guler, intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, and their Syrian counterparts will attend the security cooperation meeting, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday. Security cooperation between Turkey and Syria will be discussed, it added.
Fidan urged Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces on Wednesday to abandon their “separatist agenda”, a day after the group’s leader and Syria’s government announced a ceasefire.
Top US military commander visits Gaza and reaffirms no US troops to be deployed there
The head of the US Central Command (Centcom) said on Saturday he visited Gaza to discuss post-conflict stabilisation and insisted no US troops will be deployed there.
Adm Brad Cooper wrote on X that he had just returned from a trip to Gaza to discuss the creation of a Centcom-led “civil-military coordination centre” which will “support conflict stabilisation”.
However, as reported earlier, about 200 US troops have arrived in Israel (see 1.14pm) to help retrieve hostages and monitor the ceasefire.
The US military will coordinate a multinational taskforce which will deploy in Gaza and is likely to include troops from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Cooper wrote on X:
America’s sons and daughters in uniform are answering the call to deliver peace in the Middle East in support of the commander in chief’s direction in this historic moment.
Cooper was appointed in early August to lead Centcom, the US military command responsible for the Middle East.
“The most basic necessities are still urgently needed in Gaza: medical equipment, medicines, food, water, fuel, and adequate shelter for two million people who will face the approaching winter without a roof over their heads.” Jacob Granger, Gaza coordinator for Doctors Without Borders told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Representatives of Granger’s organisation, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said they were ready to step up shipments, but much remains unclear.
“The difficulty we have now is questions of access,” said Antoine Renard, WFP director for Palestine, speaking to AFP from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
The WFP, which leads the group of organisations handling food security, has begun discussions with Cogat, the Israeli defence ministry agency for civilian affairs in the territories.
On Friday, empty WFP trucks were seen by AFP leaving Khan Younis in southern Gaza and heading to the Kerem Shalom crossing to be loaded with food aid for distribution inside Gaza.
The Trump plan foresees a return to the UN-led aid system in place before January 2025, when Israel sealed Gaza’s borders and a private US-led operation took over aid distribution. “But the conditions on the ground are different,” Renard said.
Since Israel’s latest offensive into the cities in the north of Gaza last month, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been driven from the homes – many of which were destroyed – into central and southern Gaza.
This has shifted pressure for food aid into a now overcrowded area whose original residents were already struggling.
The Trump plan states “full aid will be immediately sent to the Gaza Strip” as soon as the agreement comes into effect, “without interference from either party”.
AFP reports that several humanitarian sources expressed optimism, despite concerns about security and registration procedures, on which Israel has yet to provide guidance.
Aid groups preparing to scale up relief work
Aid groups were preparing to scale up relief work, one of the many challenges ahead as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas entered its second day, reports the Associated Press (AP).
“When people get there, they’re going to find rubble. They’ll find that their homes and their neighbourhoods have been reduced to dust,” Unicef spokesperson Tess Ingram told the AP on Friday.
Unicef and its partners are urging Israel to reopen more crossings and allow aid to flow into Gaza more freely. Meanwhile, about 200 US troops arrived in Israel to help retrieve hostages and monitor the ceasefire.
Speaking from central Gaza, Ingram said:
A ceasefire alone is not enough.
Yes, it stops the killing and injuring of children, hopefully, but it also needs to ensure a surge of humanitarian aid that begins to address the tremendous damage that has been done over the past two years.
Cogat, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid, said that more than 500 trucks entered Gaza on Friday, although many crossings remain closed. With a declared famine still under way in parts of the strip, Unicef has 1,300 trucks ready to enter, with more on the way, Ingram said.
The aid is among the 170,000 metric tonnes that have been positioned in neighbouring countries awaiting permission from Israel to restart deliveries that have been suspended.
The days since the announcement of the ceasefire have moved swiftly. Israel’s military confirmed it had taken effect on Friday and said the 48 hostages still in Gaza would be freed on Monday. A UN official, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet public, said Israel also approved expanded aid deliveries starting Sunday.
Gaza’s civil defence agency has said it recovered the bodies of 150 Palestinians since the ceasefire came into effect, while 9,500 are still missing.
It added that 300,000 people have arrived in Gaza City since the truce began.
Around 700,000 people from Gaza City and the north were displaced by Israel’s latest offensive, which included heavy aerial bombardment as ground troops pushed into densely populated neighbourhoods.
Officials in Gaza have said that 5,000 public operations have been carried out since the ceasefire came into effect yesterday, including efforts to restore water and sewage infrastructure, as well as secure damaged buildings.
About 1,200 medical and healthcare operations were conducted, such as treating the wounded and monitoring those injured, Al Jazeera reported, citing the Gaza government media office. A further 850 rescue and relief missions were carried out by Gaza’s civil defence, police and municipal teams, who recovered bodies and began clearing the rubble.
More than 900 service missions also aimed restore water and sewage lines, remove waste, and open streets in various residential neighbourhoods.
Approximately 700 humanitarian missions were carried out to distribute food parcels.
Protesters have flooded the streets of central London to march in support of Palestine today.
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators are expected to attend the march, organised by the Palestine Coalition, which includes the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War and other groups.
The Metropolitan police said it has put measures in place to minimise disruption and prevent clashes between the protesters and a counter-demonstration organised by Stop The Hate.
US troops have started arriving in Israel to set up a coordination centre that will oversee the implementation of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, it has been reported.
The troops are not expected to enter the Gaza Strip, ABC News reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
Earlier this week, senior US officials told reporters that 200 troops will initially be on the ground with a “civil-military coordination center” operated by US Central Command. They will help facilitate the flow of humanitarian aid, as well as logistical and security assistance into the territory, according to the Associated Press.
Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and her Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sánchez, will travel to Egypt to attend an international summit on Gaza on Monday, their respective governments have confirmed.
Donald Trump has previously said he plans to meet “a lot of leaders” in Cairo on Monday to discuss the future of Gaza.
Representatives from a range of countries, including the UK, Germany, France and Qatar, are expected to be in attendance.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner after a government meeting to approve the US-brokered deal to release all hostages and implement a ceasefire in Gaza:
Here are some images coming in via the newswires:
