On the ground in Gaza, Israeli jets continued a relentless bombing campaign, with the military saying it hit more than 100 Hamas targets overnight.
AFP reporters heard loud explosions and saw plumes of smoke billowing from the northern Gaza Strip, which Israel has demanded Palestinian civilians leave for their own safety.
"LIFE AND DEATH" AID
Some 2.4 million Palestinians live in the densely populated enclave, and almost half have been displaced, according to the UN.
Israel has cut off supplies of water, electricity, fuel and food to the long-blockaded territory.
UN chief Antonio Guterres warned Friday that humanitarian relief stuck in Egypt was "the difference between life and death for so many people in Gaza".
And World Health Organization emergencies director Michael Ryan said Biden's deal for an initial 20 truck-delivery was "a drop in the ocean of need" and that 2,000 trucks were required.
At least 30 per cent of all housing in Gaza has been destroyed or damaged, the UN says, citing local authorities, and thousands have taken refuge in a tent city set up in southern Gaza's Khan Yunis.
Fadwa al-Najjar said she and her seven children walked for 10 hours to reach the camp, at some points breaking into a run as air strikes descended around them.
"We saw bodies and limbs torn off and we just started praying, thinking we were going to die," she told AFP.
"I would have preferred not to leave, to have stayed at home and died there," her daughter Malak added.
Israel's operation will take not "a day, nor a week, nor a month," the country's defence minister Yoav Gallant warned Friday.
After hitting "pockets of resistance", the defence minister foresaw "the end of Israel's responsibilities in the Gaza Strip".
An Israeli foreign ministry source, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said Israel envisaged "handing over the keys" to neighbouring Egypt, which has strongly rejected attempts to place Gaza's residents under its responsibility.
PEACE SUMMIT
"I'm afraid that the current destruction is part of a clear plan for people to have no place left to live," said Omar Ashour, a retired general in Gaza.
"This will cause a second Nakba," he added, referring to the 760,000 Palestinians who were expelled from or fled their homes when Israel was created.
Israel has received strong international backing from allies including the United States, Britain and the European Union.
On Friday, Biden requested US$14 billion in emergency military aid for Israel as part of a massive security spending package that will face a tough battle in the paralysed US Congress.
He argued the money would help secure US interests in the region, where there are fears the Israel-Hamas conflict could touch off a wider conflagration.
The United States has moved two aircraft carriers into the eastern Mediterranean to deter Iran or Lebanon's Hezbollah, both Hamas allies, from getting involved.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday Paris has also sent messages to Hezbollah warning them against intervening.
Israel on Friday ordered the 25,000 residents of the northern town of Kiryat Shmona to leave over fears after repeated cross-border exchanges of fire.
The conflict has inflamed tensions across the region, with demonstrations across the Middle East and the leaders of Egypt and Jordan condemning Israel's "collective punishment" of Palestinians.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will host a peace summit on Saturday attended by regional and some Western leaders.
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiZGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoYW5uZWxuZXdzYXNpYS5jb20vd29ybGQvaXNyYWVsLWhhbWFzLWNvbmZsaWN0LWJsaW5rZW4tdXMtaG9zdGFnZXMtdHdvLXJlbGVhc2VkLTM4NjIyODHSAQA?oc=5
2023-10-20 17:48:00Z
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