More calls to let aid into Gaza, as Israel-Hamas war rages and supplies for civilians dwindle

Outside calls continued Thursday for the urgentprovision of needed aidwithin the Gaza Strip, asIsrael acknowledged sendingtanks andtroops across the border for a brief periodto"prepare the battlefield"before an expected ground offensive aimed at destroyingHamas.

The overnight Israeli raid came after more than two weeks of devastating airstrikes that have left thousands deadand more than one million Palestinians displaced from their homes in the small, densely populated territory.Israel has imposed a suffocating siege on Gaza ever since Hamas's rampage and hostage-taking in southern Israel on Oct. 7 ignited the war.

Amid the conflict, civilians in Gazaare running out of food, water and medicine, and United Nationsworkers have barely any fuel left to support relief missions.

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Arab leaders made a joint plea on Thursday for a ceasefire to end civilian suffering and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, while UN officials reiterated that the little aid that has crossedinto the territory at the border with Egypt is not nearly enough.

In a post shared on social media, Martin Griffiths, the UN's humanitarian chief, warned that "aid is barely trickling in" to Gaza, as civilians faceongoing risks.

Cindy McCain, the head of the UN's World Food Program, said overly stringent checks at the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian borderwere slowing the flow of humanitarian aid to a "dribble" as hunger grows among Palestinians there.

"We've gotten a few a dribble, just a dribbleof trucks in," McCaintold Reuters. "We need to get a large amount in. We need safe, unfettered access into Gaza so that we can feed and make sure that people don't starve to death, because that's what's happening."

The war, now in its 20th day, is the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides. The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said on Thursday that more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed so far more than three times the number killed in the six-week-long Gaza War in 2014. In the occupied West Bank, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed in violence and Israeli raids.

The fighting has killed more than 1,400 people inIsrael, according to Israeli officials, mostly civilians who died in the initial Hamas attack. The country's military said on Thursday that the number of people confirmed held hostage in Gaza is 224and could rise higher.

On Thursday, Global Affairs Canada saidseven Canadian citizenshave now been confirmed killed in the war. Two more are missing.

Airstrikes continue

During the overnight raid, the Israeli military said soldiers struck fighters, militant infrastructure and anti-tank missile launching positions. There were no immediate reports of casualties on either side.

Rear AdmiralDaniel Hagari, a military spokesperson, said the incursion was "part of our preparations for the next stages of the war."

Israel also said it had also carried out some 250 airstrikes across Gaza in the last 24 hours, targeting tunnel shafts, rocket launchers and other militant infrastructure.

Israeli airstrikes hit a densely populated refugee camp in Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis on Thursday, levelling more than eight homes belonging to an extended family and killing at least 15 people. Ambulances raced to the scene as dust from the collapsing buildings hung in the air.

The blast zone was a chaotic wasteland of crumbled concrete and twisted metal. Rescuers carried wounded people covered in grey dust. The body of a boy was dug out from beneath a concrete slab, where his head had come to rest next to the foot of another person entombed in the wreckage.

On Wednesday, the wife, son, daughter and grandson of WaelDahdouh, a veteran Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza, were killed in an Israeli strike. Dahdouh and other mourners attended the funerals on Thursday.

The Israeli military, which accuses Hamas of operating among civilians, said its strikes killed militants and destroyed military targets. Gaza militants have fired unrelenting rocket barrages into Israel since the conflict started. One struck a residential building in the central city of Petah Tikva on Thursday, with no injuries reported.

Nine Arab countries including key U.S. allies and nations that have signed peace or normalization deals with Israel issued a joint statement on Thursday calling for an immediate ceasefire and an end to the targeting and death of civilians.

Fuel supplies critical

Hospitals in Gaza struggled to treat masses of wounded with dwindling resources. Health officials said the death toll was soaring as Israeli jets pounded Gaza. Workers pulled dead and wounded civilians, including many children, out of landscapes of rubble in cities across the territory.

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A warning by the UNagency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, over depleting fuel supplies raised alarm that the humanitarian crisis could quickly worsen.

"The hospitals will not be able to deliver lifesaving services nor keep the lifesupport machines nor the incubators on if they do not receive fuel that will help their generators generate electricity for all thesemachines," saidTamara Alrifai, aUNRWAspokesperson.

"We are very, very, very worried about the inabilityof hospitals to continue receiving war wounded, pregnant women that need to deliver or all kinds of other sick people in need of help."

In recent days, Israel let a small number of trucks with aid enter from Egypt but barred deliveries of fuel needed to power generators saying it believes Hamas will take it. According to IsraelDefence Forces spokesperson Lt.-Col. Jonathan Conricus, there is enough fuel inside Gaza to supply hospitals and water pumps "for days," if Hamas would share it.

An official with the International Committee of the Red Cross said it hopes to bring in nearly a half dozen trucks filled with vital medical supplies.

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"This is a small amount of what is required, a drop in the ocean," said William Schomburg, head of the sub-delegation in Gaza."We are trying to establish a pipeline."

UNRWA has been sharing its own fuel supplies so that trucks can distribute aid, bakeries can feed people in shelters, water can be desalinatedand hospitals can keep vital equipment working.