Humanitarian aid from Dubai bound for Gaza arrives in Egypt (2024)

A plane carrying more than 11 metric tons of aid destined for Gaza arrived in Egypt on Sunday from Dubai, according to the Emirates-based aid group sending the supplies.

The Dubai International Humanitarian City said in a statement the aid will be delivered tothe Egyptian Red Crescent, which is working to get supplies sent by several countries into Gaza.

The package includes water and food as well as goods for sanitation and hygiene.

Pope Francis called for the establishment of humanitarian corridors in Gaza and for the release of hostages taken by Hamas during an address at St. Peter's Square on Sunday.

Pope Francis said he was following "with great sorrow the situation in Israel and Palestine."

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Israel has committed to abide by international law as it prepares to launch a ground offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas attack that killed more than 1,200 people in Israel.

Cleverly told the BBC that Israel President Isaac Herzog told him privately and has "now also said publicly that Israel respects and will abide by international law.”

Arab states and rights groups have criticized Israel's response to the Hamas attack as a form of collective punishment. The Israel Defense Forces have pounded Gaza with airstrikes targeting Hamas since the October 7 attack. At least 2,329 people, including many children, have been killed in the bombardment, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Israel has also cut off electricity, food and water to the densely populated enclave, pushing the healthcare system to the brink and fueling a humanitarian crisis.

Cleverly in his response suggested that Hamas is trying to prevent Palestinians from leaving Gaza so that they can be used as “human shields" after the IDF warned more than half of Gaza's 2 million residents to evacuate the small coastal enclave's northern area. Hamas told Gazans to ignore the Israeli statement.

Rafah crossing remains closed: Cleverly added that Britain's efforts to open the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza have so far been unsuccessful.

Cleverly said the circ*mstances around opening the Rafah Crossing are “very, very difficult. At the moment, we have not been successful in getting the Rafah Crossing opened."

Gaza's 50,000 pregnant women are facing a "nightmare" situation with the enclave's healthcare system on the brink of collapse, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) representative for the state of Palestine, Dominic Allen.

Allen said that about 5,000 of the 50,000 pregnant women are expected to give birth in the coming month, and some of them could face complications.

Stories coming out of hospitals have been "harrowing," Allen said. One midwife at a maternity hospital in Gaza told Allen that since the beginning of the conflict, some midwives have been unable to even reach the maternity ward to provide assistance due to the unsafe environment.

Germany’s Foreign Ministry issued a warningon Sunday urgently advising its citizens against traveling to Israel, the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.

The ministry also urged Germans already in these areas to register themselves with the German government.

"The situation continues to be extremely volatile," the statement said. "The Government’s crisis team is monitoring the situation on the ground very closely."

Israeli President Isaac Herzog met on Sunday with a bipartisan delegation of US senators who had traveled to Israel.

In a statement Sunday, the Israeli presidency said the “senators emphasized the cross-party support for the State of Israel” during the meeting at the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv.

The lawmakers included US Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer and fellow Democrats, Mark Kelly of Arizona and Jacky Rosen of Nevada. Utah's Mitt Romney and Louisiana's Bill Cassidy represented Republicans on the trip.

Hezbollah launched missiles at Israel Sunday morning in response to Israeli attacks on Friday that killed a Reuters journalist and two elderly civilians, the Shiite militant group said in a statement.

Hezbollah said it struck the northern Israeli town of Shtula, killing one Israeli. Israeli medics said one man in his 40s was killed in the attack by the Iran-backed group and two others, also men in their 40s, were injured.

Hezbollah claimed it attacked “military positions” with precision-guided missiles.

The Israeli military said it has been striking Lebanese territories, and that there has been shooting from Lebanon towards an Israeli military position on the border.

Issam Abdallah, the Reuters videographer who was killed, was with a group of other journalists who were wearing clearly labeled press vests when an Israeli shelling hit their position near the Lebanese border town of Alma Chaab, according to video analyzed by CNN.

Journalists from international news organizations Al Jazeera, Agence France Presse, and Reuters were among the victims, according to statements from their outlets.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Saturday it was looking into the incident.

In areportpublished Saturday, Reuters said two of its journalists who were wounded in the attack recounted the press grouping was filming incoming fire from the direction of Israel when a missile hit Abdallah as he was “sitting on a low stone near the rest of the group.”

Reuters has not yet determined if Israel was behind the attack, though it has said that the strike came from the direction of Israel. Some other outlets, including Al Jazeera and the Associated Press, have said the shells were Israeli.

Hezbollah's next steps: It is still unclear whether Hezbollah will actively participate in the wider conflict. So far, it has adhered to its current rules of engagement and repeatedly stated that it will fire at Israel only when Lebanese territory, or its fighters, are fired on. It has broadly stuck to that, despite the spiraling tensions.

A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces denied that the Israeli military attacked a group of civilians attempting to flee south from northern Gaza.

What happened: The IDF on Friday warned more than half of Gaza's 2 million residents to evacuate the small coastal enclave's northern area in anticipation of a likely ground offensive. Rights groups and critics decried the move as impossible and tantamount to a war crime. Hamas, the militant group that carried out the deadly terror attack last week that killed at least 1,200 people in Israel, told Gazans to ignore the Israeli statement.

As Israeli airstrikes on Gaza continued, some people chose to abandon their homes on the advice of the IDF, packing into cars, taxis, pickup trucks and donkey-pulled carts to head south.

Extensive destruction could be seen on Salah Al-Deen street -- a main route for evacuation -- in videos authenticated by CNN. A number of bodies, including those of children, can be seen on on a flat-bed trailer that appears to have been used to carry people away from Gaza City.

What Israel said on Sunday: IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told CNN in an interview on Sunday that the Israeli military did not strike the convoy on Salah Al-Deen street.

"It was only this morning that we were able to confirm and announce that this was not on IDF strike," Lerner said.

Lerner said it appears from footage the IDF has viewed that "the explosion came from beneath," suggesting "some sort of explosive device."

Hamas has not commented on the allegations that the convoy was hit by an explosive device on the ground as opposed to an Israeli airstrike.

The World Food Programme (WFP) is running out of reserve stock inside Gaza and is so far unable to get more food into the enclave, according to Corinne Fleischer, a regional director with the United Nations humanitarian organization.

Fleischer said the WFP has enough supplies to feed 1.3 million people for two weeks piled up on the border, ready to go, but that the group cannot yet safely enter Gaza.

The WFP has so far provided 520,000 people in Gaza with canned food, bread and cash. The group is expected to reach another each 224,000 people on Sunday "despite the absolute chaos and our staff being themselves in shelters with no food, no mattresses, no water and no bathrooms, no electricity," Fleischer said.