October 21, 2023 - Israel-Hamas war news

Palestinian officials warned on Saturday that the volume of aid that reached Gaza is "not enough" to relieve the deteriorating humanitarian situation.

The head of the Hamas-controlled Government Media Office, Salama Marouf, said the aid convoy "will not be able to change the humanitarian catastrophe that the Gaza Strip is experiencing," pressing the importance "to establish a secure corridor that operates around the clock to provide the humanitarian and service needs that are currently completely lacking."

Marouf also stressed "the necessity of permanently opening the Rafah crossing," in order to facilitate the evacuation of the injured from Gaza.

Separately, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said in a statement on Saturday that the aid delivered Saturday "constitutes only 3% of the daily health and humanitarian needs that used to enter the Gaza Strip before the aggression."

The health ministry added that "excluding the entry of fuel as part of humanitarian aid will continue to pose a threat to the lives of patients and the wounded," with resources at hospitals in Gaza "completely dried up."

The ministry appealed to the international community "to take immediate action to enter fuel and urgent health supplies before more lives are lost inside hospitals," adding that "seven hospitals and 25 health facilities have gone out of service due to targeting and fuel depletion."

Head of the Palestinian National Initiative and former legislator Mustafa Barghouti echoed the sentiment from Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank.

"20 trucks of aid to Gaza will not change much. Gaza needs at least 500 trucks of fuel, food, medicines and water daily,” Barghouti said. 

“Immediate need now is 7,000 trucks of immediate aid. That’s why 20 trucks will not really change much," he continued.

Barghouti also said that "what we need is opening of the Rafah crossing that could continue to provide support to Gaza."

"We need immediate support to reduce this act of collective punishment against the Palestinian people," he added.

CNN military analyst Ret. Col. Cedric Leighton said Egyptian officials have a potential problem on their hands amid the brief reopening of the Rafah border crossing.

Speaking on the issue of the hundreds of people who have gathered at the Palestinian side of the border crossing, Leighton said holding them there while the gates open for humanitarian aid will be a "real problem."

"It's a potential nightmare for the Egyptian officials on the other side of the border, but more importantly for the people themselves.

"There really has to be some kind of force that goes in there in terms of a peacekeeping force... It's really important for there to be some kind of humanitarian corridor that on the one side allows logistical goods for the civilian population in on the one side and then allows for the foreigners to leave on the other."

He continued, "But the Egyptians are not willing to do that, and that is going to be the real problem.

"We are going to potentially see the need for some kind of non-combatant evacuation if this continues."

The Rafah crossing was briefly opened on Saturday morning to allow the first convoy of aid trucks to enter the besieged Gaza Strip.

Humanitarian aid had been stuck in Egypt for days with Gaza plunged into a worsening crisis. The enclave is fast running out of food, water, fuel and medical supplies – all while being pounded by relentless airstrikes.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been gathering outside the Rafah crossing with Egypt in the hope of getting permission to leave Gaza, amid Israel's heavy bombardment of the enclave.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said he gathered world leaders in the Egyptian capital of Cairo on Saturday to find a "roadmap" to end the "humanitarian tragedy" unfolding in Gaza. 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas joined representatives from 34 countries and three United Nations and international bodies for the summit. Israel was absent from the gathering.

After aid is delivered to Gaza, efforts should be focused on brokering a truce and ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, Sisi said. 

The final step in the process would be the resumption of negotiations to "revive the peace process leading to the two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state that lives side by side with Israel on the basis of international legitimacy," he added.

Sisi also reiterated his "complete rejection" of the displacement of Palestinians and stressed that their displacement into other areas, such as into Sinai, is not a just solution. 

In his opening remarks, he also said that Egypt condemns the targeting and killing of peaceful civilians and called upon leaders to protect civilians "without discrimination." 

He condemned what he described as "the collective punishment, blockade and starvation" of "Palestinians," stressing that Egypt has been working "around the clock" to facilitate the delivery of aid to Gaza.

Earlier Saturday, a convoy of 20 aid trucks passed through the Rafah crossing from Egypt to Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid.

The Rafah crossing was briefly opened on Saturday morning, allowing the first convoy of aid trucks to enter the besieged Gaza Strip. Humanitarian aid had been stuck in Egypt for days with Gaza plunged into a worsening humanitarian crisis. The enclave is fast running out of food, water, fuel and medical supplies – all while being pounded by relentless airstrikes.

Elsewhere, world leaders have been arriving in Egypt for a peace summit on the Gaza crisis Saturday, although regional experts were pessimistic that the meeting would achieve much to de-escalate the situation and protect civilians.

Below are the latest developments...

Lit by the ghostly glow of a rapidly depleting mobile phone light, Mahmoud Shalabi says conditions in northern Gaza have become “really dire” without adequate access to medicine, clean water, electricity or safe passage after nearly two weeks of Israeli bombardment.

For Shalabi, a local aid worker, a working phone is one of his most vital possessions.

But the drain on the battery was worth it, he said, if he could show people around the world what is happening in northern Gaza, the half of the enclave that Israel’s military has told civilians to evacuate but where many nonetheless remain.

A father of three, Shalabi has been peppered with tough questions from his 9-year-old son about what their fate might hold.

“He asked me the other day and was crying, ‘Dad, if I die, will I go to heaven or hell?’,” Shalabi recalled. “I really couldn’t answer. I choked for a few seconds and I said we will all go to heaven, my son.”

Northern Gaza, which contains the heavily populated Gaza City, has been hit especially hard by Israeli airstrikes since Hamas gunmen streamed out of the enclave on October 7 for an unprecedented murder and kidnapping rampage.

Israel’s military has told civilians to evacuate south ahead of an expected ground offensive aimed at destroying Hamas and the many tunnels it controls under the enclave.

Read the full interview here.

The trucks which crossed the Rafah border earlier Saturday to deliver aid to Gaza, were carrying food, water and medical supplies, but no fuel.

According to Egyptian authorities at the Rafah crossing, 13 trucks were carrying medicine and medical supplies, five were carrying food and two trucks were transporting water.

A Palestinian spokesperson for the border crossing claimed on Saturday that the aid trucks do not have "enough" supplies for even one school in Gaza. CNN cannot verify this claim.

Head of Communications for the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing Wael Abu Mohsen also told Saudi state media Al Hadath TV in an interview Saturday that fuel was not delivered, "despite fuel supplies running dangerously low at hospitals and schools in Gaza."

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told reporters on Saturday that no fuel entered Gaza in the aid convoy on Saturday.

A top relief agency official told CNN the day before that the shortage of fuel, water and electricity was leaving hospitals in Gaza “unfunctional” and in some cases “out of service.”

The fuel scarcity is causing Gaza residents to resort to using contaminated water; most of the water is not drinkable because it needs treatment units for processing, which requires fuel, CARE West Bank and Gaza Country Director Hiba Tibi said in an interview on Friday.  

On Saturday morning, the Rafah border crossing was opened for a short window to let 20 aid trucks cross into the Gaza Strip from Egypt. While many have welcomed the brief reopening, rights groups stress that more aid is desperately needed within the besieged enclave.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was one of those who warned Saturday that "needs are far higher."

Tedros in a post on social media said that in order "to meet the urgent health needs of all people in Gaza," the WHO was calling for safe passage of additional aid convoys across the enclave, protection of all humanitarian workers and a sustained access for health aid.

According to the WHO, the supplies include "trauma medicines and supplies for 1200 people and portable trauma bags for on-the-spot stabilization of up to 235 injured people."

"They also include chronic diseases medicines and treatments for 1500 people and basic essential medicines and health supplies for 300,000 people for three months," said the WHO.

The organization said it was working with the Egyptian and Palestine Red Crescent societies to ensure the safe passage of the supplies and their delivery to hospitals and health facilities, adding that hospitals inside Gaza have already reached “breaking point” due to shortages. 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in an update that it now believes 210 people are being held hostage in Gaza, the military's spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told journalists at a briefing on Saturday.

The news comes a day after two American hostages - Judith Tai Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie Raanan - were released by Hamas, nearly two weeks after its deadly attack on Israel.

Following their release, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country would continue working to return all hostages.

“Two of our hostages are home. We will not ease the effort to bring back all abductees and those missing. Simultaneously, we keep fighting until a victory is reached,” Netanyahu said in a statement posted to social media on Friday.

Egypt was holding a peace summit on the Gaza crisis on Saturday, but regional experts were pessimistic that the meeting would achieve much to de-escalate the situation and protect civilians.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was in the Egyptian capital for the Cairo Peace Summit, with representatives from 34 countries and three United Nations and international bodies in attendance. The United States Chargé d’Affaires, ad interim, to Egypt, Ambassador Beth Jones, is also present at the summit. Israel was absent from the gathering.

Several other leaders from the region have arrived in Cairo, including King Abdullah of Jordan, President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, the Amir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the Crown Prince of Kuwait Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. 

The summit arrivals were broadcast live on Egyptian television.

Other world leaders also flew in, including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly. 

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who delivered remarks to open the summit, initiated the gathering on the situation in Gaza, inviting regional and international leaders to Cairo to participate in a bid to resolve the crisis.

One senior political scientist played down hopes of a breakthrough. Dalia Dassa Kaye, a senior fellow from the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, told CNN: "I doubt we are going to see very immediate concrete results," but added, "It is clear the Egyptians and others in the region feel a need to show some kind of diplomatic horizon."

This post has been updated.