Desperately waiting for emergency help after twelve days of blockade
Over 100 trucks are waiting - it is unclear when the border crossing can open
Updated 15.20 | Published 12.33
News
When the bombs fall, the adults shout and cheer to calm the children. They live on dry bread and powdered milk.
Water, food and medical supplies are running out in Gaza after almost two weeks of total blockade.
- How the hell could the whole world just watch and let Israel cut off the water, says Gaza resident Azmi Keshawi, father of four, to AP.
The explosions can be heard from the small, damp, cramped room in Khan Younis in southern Gaza where the Keshawi family has taken refuge. All the time, the airstrikes are getting closer, he says.
Here, 59-year-old Azmi, his wife, four children and small grandchildren are trying to survive. They eat dry bread and drink powdered flour. Several bakeries have been hit by rockets, others have closed due to lack of water or electricity.
They get their water from a UN school in the area, which distributes canisters of water from Gaza's underground water reservoirs. It tastes salty. When the fuel ran out, the desalination plant stopped working.
Palestinian refugees at the border with Egypt. Photo: Hatem Ali / AP
100 trucks are waiting at the border
The Keshawi family gets their water from a donkey cart. It is yellow in color and they cook it.
- How the hell could the whole world just watch and let Israel turn off the water, says Azmi Keshawi indignantly.
The UN, as well as several human rights organizations, have demanded that humanitarian aid be allowed to enter Gaza. On the Egyptian side of the border, over 100 trucks with emergency aid are ready to enter.
According to Egyptian media, 20 trucks may be allowed to enter during Friday. Israel says that the emergency aid could enter Gaza as early as today or tomorrow at the latest. However, it is a drop in the ocean compared to the great need for help that exists, according to the WHO.
Meanwhile, sources tell CNN that it is still unclear when the border may actually open.
Convoys with emergency aid are stuck at the border between Gaza and Egypt, which remains closed. Photo: Mahmoud Khaled/Getty Images
Cry often: Breaks my heart
For the Keshawi family, the situation is becoming increasingly desperate.
Azmi says the airstrikes are sometimes too intense to go out and forage. When the bombs fall, the adults shout "boom!" and cheers to try to calm the children.
The little babies are laughing. But the older children are terrified.
Azmi Keshawi tries to bite the bullet. But he often cries.
- It really breaks my heart.
Children look out of a window in a bombed-out house in Rafah. Photo: Hatem Ali / AP
According to the Palestinian health authorities, over 3,000 people have died since Saturday, October 7, when Israel began its airstrikes in response to the bloody massacres by Hamas in southern Israel.
Israel has called on all Gazan civilians to get to southern Gaza in connection with its offensive against Hamas. According to the UN, more than a million of Gaza's 2.4 million inhabitants have been driven to flee. Many live in tent camps built by the UN in Khan Younis.
At 15:00 on Friday, the message came from Egypt's Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the border crossing at Rafah is open.
According to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, a ground invasion of Gaza is imminent.
- Now you see Gaza in the distance. Soon you will see it from the inside.
The order is coming, Gallant reportedly told soldiers at the border, according to a statement from the Secretary of Defense's office.
Injured are evacuated in Rafah after Israeli airstrikes.
The humanitarian situation is urgent in Gaza and aid workers have set up tents on the border between Egypt and Rafah in southern Gaza, waiting to be allowed in across the closed border.
Injured are evacuated in Rafah after Israeli airstrikes.
1 / 2Photo: Fatima Shbair / AP
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