GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Oct  19, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Palestinians
in war-torn Gaza on Thursday eagerly awaited the arrival of aid trucks promised
in a deal struck by US President Joe Biden, as Israel's military kept up its
bombardment of targets in the Hamas-run enclave.

Egyptian state-linked broadcaster Al Qahera News said the Rafah border
crossing -- the only one in and out of besieged Gaza not controlled by Israel
-- would open on Friday.

More than 100 trucks carrying aid have been queuing for days on the
Egyptian side of the border, with the United Nations and others calling for
urgent help for besieged civilians.

On a visit to Cairo, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said there
needed to be "rapid, unimpeded humanitarian access" after dire warnings about
the impact of the Israeli blockade.

"We need food, water, medicine and fuel now. We need it at scale and we
need it to be sustained, it is  not one small operation that is required," he
added.

The emergencies director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Michael
Ryan, said aid needed to get in "every day", calling an initial 20 trucks --
the deal struck by Biden with Israel and Egypt -- "a drop in the ocean of need
right now".

Gaza has been hit by a relentless barrage of Israeli fire in retaliation
for a Hamas militant attack on October 7, which Israel said killed at least
1,400 people, most of them civilians.

Some 1,500 Islamist fighters were killed in clashes before the army
regained control, the Israeli military said.

Israeli bombing since has killed at least 3,785 Palestinians, most of them
civilians, according to the health ministry.

Entire city blocks have been levelled, displacing more than one million of
the 2.4 million population, the UN has said.

"The pace of death, of suffering, of destruction... cannot be exaggerated,"
said UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths.

There are fears of worse to come if Israel launches an anticipated ground
invasion to destroy Hamas and rescue Israeli and foreign hostages, whose known
number Israel on Thursday revised up to 203.

- 'We're ready' -

Biden, on a flying visit to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his
war cabinet on Wednesday, reiterated strong US support for its long-time ally
but also stressed the need to address the plight of Palestinian civilians.

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah II on
Thursday condemned what they said was the "collective punishment" of Gazans.

They also warned about the conflict spreading, with anger across the Middle
East at Israel and its Western allies.

"If the war does not stop", it threatens "to plunge the entire region into
catastrophe", a statement from the Jordanian royal court read.

Sisi and Abdullah, whose countries were the first Arab states to make peace
with Israel in 1979 and 1994, are seen as key mediators between Israel and the
Palestinians.

They had been due to have four-way talks with Palestinian president Mahmud
Abbas and Biden. But Amman cancelled the summit.

Cairo has so far kept the Rafah border closed, pointing to repeated Israeli
strikes near the checkpoint and voicing fears that Israel may be hoping to
permanently drive Palestinians out and into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

On the Gaza side, scores of people were again waiting, desperate to flee
but careful to keep at least 100 metres (300 feet) away in case of new Israeli
bombardment.

"We're ready with our bags," said one man who gave his name only as
Mohammed, 40, and said he works for a European institution.

He said he had been waiting "for three days with my family, in a house 10
minutes away from the crossing" but had received no information so far.

Majed, 43, who said he works with a German organisation, told AFP: "I came
on my own this morning and, in case the crossing opens, I'd get my wife and
children -- they're ready."

- Israel united -

Biden, who was due to address the nation on Thursday about the Gaza and
Ukraine conflicts, announced the aid deal after what he called "blunt" talks in
Israel and a phone call with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Israel consented to the deal while pressing on with its military campaign.

Its army reported Thursday that it had destroyed hundreds more Hamas
targets, including a missile launch site and tunnels, and that "more than 10
terrorists were eliminated".

Israel has stressed it must destroy Hamas after the worst attack on its
soil which, the army said Thursday, had claimed 1,403 lives since the surprise
onslaught on October 7, including at least 306 soldiers killed in battles to
reclaim overrun villages and kibbutzim.

Biden, the first US president to visit Israel during war time, strongly
backed Israel but warned it not to overreact, cautioning that Washington made
mistakes as it sought to avenge 9/11.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday became the latest foreign leader
to make a solidarity visit to Israel, meeting Netanyahu and President Isaac
Hertzog.

He backed Israeli action but also stressed the need to get aid into Gaza,
before jetting to Saudi Arabia for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Netanyahu called Israel's fightback a "just war", adding: "I've never seen
the people of Israel as united -- more united -- than they are now," he said.

But intensifying cross-border fire between Israel and the Iran-backed
Hezbollah movement in Lebanon is stoking fears of a potential second front.

As tensions mounted, the United States, UK and Germany on Thursday advised
their citizens to leave Lebanon while flights were still available.

- Hospital strike -

The Arab world has been united in anger and condemnation of Israel since a
deadly strike hit a Gaza hospital compound on Tuesday.

Both sides in the war have traded blame for the bloody carnage, but neither
the provenance of the strike nor the death toll could immediately be
independently verified.

The strike left scores of bodies and charred cars at the Ahli Arab hospital
compound in northern Gaza, AFP images showed.

Hamas accused Israel of hitting the hospital during its massive bombing
campaign and Gaza's health ministry put the death toll at 471.

Israel blamed a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket, a claim backed by Biden who
said the US Defense Department had concluded that "it's highly unlikely that it
was the Israelis. It would have had a different footprint".

The Israeli military has pointed to the absence of a large impact crater
typical of its air strikes and said fuel from the errant rocket had exploded.
A senior European intelligence source told AFP that he believed a maximum
of 50 people were killed.

Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus has also disputed Hamas's figure
of 471 dead, asking: "Where are all the bodies?"

Hamas has dismissed Israel's position, saying its "outrageous lies do not
deceive anyone".

It also slammed the United States, accusing it of being complicit in the
ongoing strikes on Gaza.