Aid Trucks Enter Gaza as Two American Hostages Released

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Facts

  • Two weeks into an aerial bombardment campaign of a Gaza under total blockade, 20 aid trucks entered the territory via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Saturday following a deal between US Pres. Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier in the week — one of the conditions being that it would be distributed without Hamas involvement.1
  • With over 1M of Gaza's 2.3M population internally displaced, Palestinians are rationing food and drinking dirty water. According to Gaza's Health Ministry, which is Hamas-run, almost 4.4K people had been killed by Saturday. That figure includes a disputed number of people who died in a hospital explosion earlier this week.2
  • On Friday, amid a charged and fiery debate about who was responsible for the Oct. 17 explosion at Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, the Associated Press published an investigation that suggests a rocket fired from Gaza and bound for Israel malfunctioned, mistakenly striking the hospital.3
  • Aside from the Al Ahli hospital, the UN assesses that 58 other medical facilities have been struck in the course of Israel's 13-day air campaign, leaving an estimated 50K pregnant women in Gaza without access to basic services.4
  • News of the 20 trucks entering Gaza on Saturday was welcomed, but widely described as being a 'drop in the ocean' by some officials who called for 'sustained humanitarian access.' Before hostilities, the Rafah border crossing saw roughly 500 trucks pass through each day, aid officials said.1
  • Meanwhile, following mediation efforts led by Qatar and Egypt, Hamas on Friday released two hostages from its incursion into Israel that killed over 1.4K on Oct. 7. Judith Ranaan and her 17-year-daughter Natalie, both US citizens, had been visiting relatives in southern Israel when they were abducted alongside 200 other people.5
  • Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said Israel was continuing work to return hostages and find the missing.6

Sources: 1The Guardian (a), 2Associated Press (a), 3Associated Press (b), 4UN News, 5CNN and 6The Guardian (b).

Narratives

  • Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Associated Press. After a week of high-level diplomacy that included the involvement of leaders like UN chief António Guterres and US Pres. Joe Biden, much-needed humanitarian aid has finally reached the Gaza Strip.
  • Pro-Israel narrative, as provided by CNN. Following the scale of atrocities carried out by Hamas in Israel, Tel Aviv has every right to defend itself from terrorists. Hamas must face the consequences for its vicious and terrorizing actions — this includes proactive actions in Gaza to ensure this historic attack on Israeli soil and civilians never happens again.
  • Pro-Palestine, as provided by Amnesty International. In response to the Hamas attack, Israel isn't singling out Hamas alone but is inflicting a punishment on the Palestinian people as a whole. Its actions have forced a humanitarian crisis on an already impoverished population — This must be investigated as a war crime.

Predictions