Israel says it will let food, water and medicine into southern Gaza via Egypt

Israel said Wednesday it will allow Egypt to deliver limited quantities of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. The first crack in Israel'spunishing 10-day siege on the territory came one day after a deadly blast at a Gaza City hospital killed hundreds and put immense strain on Gaza doctors treating the scores of wounded as medical supplies ran out.

The announcement thatwater, food and other supplies would be allowed into Gaza came as rage over Tuesday night's blast at al-Ahli Hospital spread across the Middle East, and as U.S. President Joe Biden visited Israel in hopes of preventing a wider conflict in the region.

The border crossing at Rafah, between Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip, is the only land crossing from the Palestinian territory that is not controlled by Israel.

Aid will not be delivered to Gaza across its borders with Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu'soffice said, "as long as our hostages are not returned." Israel's military has said nearly 200 hostages were kidnapped after Hamas carried out anOct. 7 cross-border rampage in which at least 1,300 people, mostly civilians, died. The dead include several Canadians.

Truckloads of aid have been waiting for days at Egypt'sRafahcrossing to enter Gaza.The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in anews release Wednesday that an estimated 2,700 tonnes of humanitarian assistance are awaiting entry to Gaza from Egypt.

The facility has only a limited capacity and Egypt must repair the road across the border that was cratered by Israeli airstrikes.

After leaving the region, Bidentold reporters on board Air Force One that EgyptianPresident Abdel Fattah el-Sisihad agreed to open the crossing to20 trucks carryinghumanitarian aid.

"We want to get as many of the trucks out as possible," he said. "IfHamas confiscates it or doesn't let it get through then it's going to end. 'Cause we're not going to send humanitarian aid to Hamas."

Biden said there are about 150 trucks of aid ready to cross and that if the first movement of trucks goes well, more could follow.

WATCH | Biden on the obstacles ofproviding aid:

Biden discusses deal to get aid through Rafah Crossing

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Duration 0:46

U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters on the way home from Israel that he spoke to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who agreed to do the necessary repairs to the Rafah border crossing with the aim of getting a first tranche of aid into Gaza on Friday.

• Are you in the Middle East and affected by the war between Israel and Hamas? We want to hear about your experience. Send an email to ask@cbc.ca.

Biden left Israel after an eight-hour visit on Wednesday, telling Netanyahu that Washington would provide Israel with everything it needed to defend itself as it wages war against Hamas, the militant group he appeared to blame forTuesday's devastating hospital blast.

He said he was "sad and outraged" by theexplosion at al-Ahli al-Arabi hospital, which Hamas said killed hundreds of people.

"Based on what I've seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you," Biden said while seated with Netanyahu. "But there's a lot of people out there not sure, so we've got to overcome a lot of things."

WATCH | 'Sad and outraged':

Biden 'deeply saddened and outraged' over Gaza hospital blast

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Duration 0:29

U.S. President Joe Biden, who was in Tel Aviv alongside Israel's prime minister, said Wednesday that 'based on what I've seen' about the deadly blast at a Gaza hospital, 'it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you.'

Biden later attributed his statement to intelligence he'd viewed from the Pentagon.Hamas said in a statement in response to Biden's remarks that the U.S. was "blindly biased to Israel."

After meeting with first responders on Wednesday, Biden urged Israelis not to be consumed by rage and said thevast majority of Palestinians were not affiliated with Hamas. The Palestinian people are suffering as well, he said.

"What sets us apart from the terrorists is we believe in the fundamental dignity of all human life," he said.

Biden again pressed for a two-state solution that would allow Israelis and Palestinians to co-exist peacefully.

WATCH |The challenges of investigating the hospital explosion:

What experts would look for to determine cause of Gaza hospital blast

11 months ago

Duration 4:09

Andres Gannon, an assistant professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, discusses what evidence experts would use to determine what caused a deadly explosion at a Gaza City hospital. He warns that the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas would make it more difficult to identify the cause.

Competing claims, inflamed tensions

Israel says the hospital blast was caused by a rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militantgroup that fell short.The group denied responsibility. Palestinian officials assigned blame to an Israeli airstrike.

The bloodshed at thehospital resulted in the cancellation of a planned summit in Jordan between Biden, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Egypt's Sisi.

It also inflamed tensions in the region. Palestinian security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse anti-government protesters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, seat of Abbas. Protests also erupted at Israel's embassies in Turkey and Jordan and near the U.S. embassy in Lebanon, where security forces fired tear gas toward demonstrators.

The U.S. State Department issued a new warning to Americans not to travel to Lebanon, which has seen border clashes between the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement and Israel over the past week.

The spokesperson for the Health Ministry in Gaza, Ashraf Al-Qudra, said hundreds were killed and rescuers were still pulling bodies from the rubble. Earlier, a Gaza civil defence chief gave a death toll of 300, while health ministry sources put it at 500.

Reuters could not immediately verify the claims nor the death toll.

The scenes at the hospital follow 12 days of disturbing images, first of Israelis slaughtered in their homes and then of Palestinian families buried under rubble from Israel's retaliatory strikes.

WATCH |Deadly hospital airstrike threatens to escalate conflict:

Deadly hospital blast threatens to escalate Israel-Hamas conflict

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Duration 3:33

Warning: this video contains graphic details | On what was already one of the deadliest days of the Israel-Hamas war, hundreds are believed dead after an explosion at a hospital in Gaza City. The apparent attack is causing condemnation worldwide, with Hamas blaming Israel and Israel blaming another militant group in Gaza.

At least 3,478 Palestinians have been killed overall and more than 13,000 wounded since Israel began airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, Palestinian health officials said Wednesday.

The blast at the hospital came shortly after UN agency school for Palestinians in central Gaza Strip was hit Tuesday, killing six.

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More than onemillion Palestinians have fled their homes roughly half of Gaza's population, the UN has said and many had taken refuge in al-Ahli and other Gaza City hospitals. Israel's military on Friday urged hundreds of thousands of Gazans to move to the southern part of the territory, though Hamas told Palestinians to reject that order.

Aid workers warned the situation was growing perilous.

"It's not just that people are going hungry, people are at the risk of starvation," said Alia Zaki, a spokesperson for the World Food Program. "There is a major shortage of essential items that will run out within days."

OferCassif, a Jewish member oftheArab-Jewish opposition coalition Hadash-Ta'al, is one of thevery few politicians in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, calling for an end to the siege of Gaza.

"I have to condemn totally, with no reservation, of course, the terrible slaughter that Hamas carried out against innocent civilians in the south of Israel," CassiftoldAs It Happenshost Nil Kksal. "There was no justification for such a massacre."

However, he added, "there's no justification for the carnage that Israel carries out at the moment. Because those who are harmed, assaulted and killed [are] mostly innocent civilians."

• Israeli politician who lost friends in Hamas attack calls for an end to the Gaza bombings

Cassif was temporarilysuspended from the Knesset this week for comparing Israel's treatment of Palestinians to Nazism.

Egypt rejects displaced Palestinians

Egypt'sSisi said on Wednesday that Egyptians would reject the forced displacement of millions of Palestinians into Sinai, adding that any such move would turn the peninsula into a base for attacks against Israel.

"Egypt rejects any attempt to resolve the Palestinian issue by military means or through the forced displacement of Palestinians from their land, which would come at the expense of the countries of the region," he said.

Sisi said the Egyptian people would "go out and protest in their millions if called upon to do so" against any displacement of Gaza's residents to Sinai.

WATCH |Historic, economic reasons guide Egypt stance on refugees:

Why Egypt hasn't opened the Rafah crossing with Gaza

11 months ago

Duration 7:56

As the humanitarian situation in Gaza deteriorates, theres growing pressure on Egypt to open the Rafah border crossing to let vital aid in and people out. The National breaks down why Egypt hasnt budged and how the situation could unfold over the coming days.

The hostilities in the Mideast have seen nations scramble to avoid wider regional fighting.

UN resolution vetoed

The U.S. vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution on Wednesday submitted by Brazil. Washington traditionally shields its ally Israel from any Security Council action.

The vote on the Brazilian-drafted text was twice delayed in the past couple of days as the U.S. tried to broker aid access to Gaza. Twelve members voted in favour of the draft text on Wednesday, while Russia and Britain abstained.

The draft resolution also urged Israel without naming it to rescind its mass evacuation order for civilians and UN staff in Gaza and condemned "the terrorist attacks by Hamas." Theresolution condemned all violence and hostilities against civilians and all acts of terrorism and called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

A resolution from Russia that avoided blaming Hamas for the Oct. 7 attacks was rejected earlier this week by the U.S., Britain, France and Japan.

WATCH | Searching for survivors:

Drone footage shows aftermath of airstrike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza

11 months ago

Duration 0:45

A drone captures footage of people in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, searching the rubble for survivors following an Israeli airstrike.