RAFAH: Heavy clashes and bombardment on Saturday rocked Gaza's southern city of Rafah as the first humanitarian aid had entered the besieged territory via a US-built pier.
More than 10 days into what the Israeli military called a "limited" operation in Rafah that sparked an exodus of Palestinians sheltering there, fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian groups has also flared again in Gaza's north.
The Kuwaiti hospital said an overnight Israeli strike killed two people in a displacement camp in Rafah, with witnesses reporting heavy gunfire and shelling in the city's southeast and jets bombarding its eastern areas.
Correspondents, witnesses and medics said there were intense battles overnight in the northern Jabalia refugee camp, after the Israeli army reported on Friday "perhaps the fiercest" violence in the town in more than seven months of war.
The Israeli incursion into Rafah, launched despite overwhelming international opposition and as mediators were hoping for a breakthrough in stalled truce talks, has worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis, aid groups say.
With key land crossings closed or operating at limited capacity due to the fighting, some relief supplies began flowing into war-ravaged Gaza via a temporary, floating pier constructed by the United States. The Israeli army said 310 pallets began moving ashore in "the first entry of humanitarian aid through the floating pier".
In the coming days, around 500 tonnes of aid are expected to be delivered to Gaza through the pier, according to US Central Command.
But UN agencies and humanitarian aid groups have warned sea or air deliveries cannot replace far more efficient truck convoys into Gaza, where the United Nations has repeatedly warned of looming famine.
The European Union welcomed the first shipment from Cyprus to the Gaza pier, but called on Israel to "expand deliveries by land and to immediately open additional crossings".
The Rafah crossing has been closed since the Israeli Rafah operation began early last week.
Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 35,386 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data provided by the Palestinian territory's health ministry.
The toll includes at least 83 deaths over the past 24 hours, said a ministry statement on Saturday.
Amid the aid shortages, the Israeli army said "dozens of Israeli civilians" set fire to a Gaza-bound aid truck in the occupied West Bank on Thursday night, in the second such attack in a week.
The looming Israeli assault has prompted nearly 640,000 of the 1.4 million people who had been sheltering in Rafah to flee to other areas, the UN humanitarian office said. — AFP
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