Israel Hamas war: UN calls for 'end to the nightmare' as aid trucks enter Gaza and strikes continue

Fighting intensifies along Israel’s border with Lebanon

Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters exchanged fire on Saturday in several areas along the Lebanon-Israel border as violence continues to escalate over the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Journalists in south Lebanon heard loud explosions along the border close to the Mediterranean coast.

The state-run National News Agency reported that Israeli shelling hit several villages, adding that a car was directly hit in the village of Houla.

An Israeli army spokesman said a group of gunmen fired a shell into Israel adding that an Israeli drone then targeted them. He added that another group of gunmen fired toward the Israeli town of Margaliot and a drone attacked them shortly afterwards.

“Direct hits were scored in both strikes,” Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X - formerly Twitter.

4,385 Palestinians killed since the start of the war - Hamas Health Ministry

At least 4,385 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on 7 October, the territory's Health Ministry has announced.

According to the report, 1,756 children and 967 women are among these deaths. At least 13,561 people have been injured in Gaza, relentlessly bombarded in retaliation for the Hamas attack on Israeli soil.

‘We must act now to end the nightmare’ - UN boss

The head of the UN, Antonio Guterres, has called for an end to the conflict, saying "we must act now to put an end to the nightmare".

Guterres was speaking at the ongoing ‘Peace Summit’ in Cairo and also called for a "humanitarian ceasefire" on the 15th day of the war between Israel and Hamas in power in Gaza.

“The Gazans need much more, a massive delivery of aid is necessary” added the Secretary General of the United Nations.

Only 20 trucks crossed from Egypt to Gaza besieged and shelled by Israel on Saturday morning, a figure the UN says is totally insufficient.

The organisation has called for 100 trucks of aid per day to help the 2.4 million Gazans in the region.

Gaza aid convoy 'must not be last' - UN

“The first convoy must not be the last”, the head of the UN humanitarian aid agency Martin Griffiths has warned during a ‘Summit for Peace’ in Cairo, after the passage of 20 trucks from Egypt towards Gaza besieged and shelled by Israel.

“I am confident that this shipment will be the start of a sustainable effort to deliver essential goods – including food, water, medicine and fuel – to Gazans in a secure, unconditional and unhindered manner”, he added.

Egyptian media have reported that Saturday's shipments only contain food and medical aid and not fuel, vital in the Gaza Strip.

Griffith’s call comes after humanitarian aid trucks began crossing the Rafah terminal on the Egyptian side towards the Palestinian enclave of Gaza earlier on Saturday.

Egyptian state television showed several trucks passing through the huge gate of the border crossing on the 15th day of war between Israel and Hamas, which rules Gaza, as tons of aid have been piling up for days in the waiting for a passage to the 2.4 million Gazans, half of them children, without water, electricity or fuel.

Hamas releases two US hostages

Hamas militants freed two Americans late on Friday - a mother and her teenage daughter, who had been held hostage in Gaza since militants rampaged through Israel two weeks ago, the Israeli government said.

The pair, who also hold Israeli citizenship, were the first hostages to be released. More than 200 are still being held.

The two Americans, Judith Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter Natalie, were out of the Gaza Strip and in the hands of the Israeli military, an army spokesman said. Hamas said it was releasing them in an agreement with the Qatari government for humanitarian reasons.

Judith and Natalie Ranaan had been on a trip to southern Israel from their home in suburban Chicago to celebrate a Jewish holiday, family said. They had been staying at the kibbutz of Nahal Oz, near Gaza, when Hamas fighters took them and more than 200 others hostage.

Relatives of other captives welcomed the release and appealed for others to be freed.

“We call on world leaders and the international community to exert their full power in order to act for the release of all the hostages and missing,’’ their statement said.

17 UN refugee agency employees killed since the start of the war

At least 17 employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, the Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarin said on Saturday.

“So far, the deaths in this brutal war of 17 of our colleagues have been confirmed. Unfortunately, the true figure is likely to be higher,” Lazzarin wrote in a statement.

Some “were killed at home while sleeping with their families,” he added.

“In the Gaza Strip, incessant airstrikes and bombardments, coupled with evacuation orders by Israeli forces, have led to the displacement of a million people and caused the deaths of far too many civilians,” Lazzarini went on, calling for “an urgent humanitarian ceasefire”.

He also noted that the UNRWA’s facilities "are now overcrowded", with 500,000 people having taken refuge there.

Israel calls on its citizens to immediately leave Egypt and Jordan

Israel has called on its citizens in Egypt and Jordan to leave these two countries "as quickly as possible" due to a "worsening of demonstrations against Israel".

A similar alert, level 4, the highest, had already been issued for Turkey and the recommendations were raised to level 3 for Morocco, advising Israelis not to go there.

"Due to the continuation of the war, and a significant worsening in recent days of demonstrations against Israel… and demonstrations of hostility and violence against Israeli and Jewish symbols", the entire " Middle East and Arab countries" are not recommended for Israelis, warned the Israeli National Security Council in a statement.

Two Israeli tourists and their Egyptian guide were killed by a police officer in Alexandria on 8 October, the day after Hamas attacks on Israel.

Biden thinks Hamas attack linked to efforts on Israel-Saudi relations

President Joe Biden said he thinks Hamas’ initial attack on Israel was tied in part to efforts to normalise relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, an initiative that Biden was trying to bring to fruition.

“They knew that I was about to sit down with the Saudis,” the U.S. president said late on Friday, speaking at a fundraiser.