(MENAFN- The Peninsula) AFP
Rafah, Palestinian Territories: Heavy clashes and bombardment Saturday rocked Gaza's southern city of Rafah, witnesses said, as the US military announced the first 310 pallets of humanitarian aid had entered the besieged territory via a US-built pier.
More than 10 days into the operation in Rafah, fighting 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.
AFP correspondents, witnesses and medics said there were intense battles overnight in the northern Jabalia refugee camp.
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.
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 that the so-called maritime corridor, and ongoing airdrops from planes, cannot replace far more efficient truck convoys into Gaza, where the United Nations has repeatedly warned of looming famine.
Rafah operation hampers aid
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".
Hamas stressed that the floating pier "is not an alternative to opening all land crossings".
Aid groups have said the Rafah incursion has further hampered aid deliveries, with the southern city's crossing on the Egypt border -- a vital conduit for humanitarian assistance -- now shut.
In northern Gaza's Beit Lahia, witnesses reported air strikes near Kamal Adwan hospital on Saturday.
The hospital's director Hussam Abu Safiya told AFP on Friday that the facility, which has received "large numbers of injured and killed" from fighting in nearby Jabalia, was running low on medical supplies and fuel to power generators.
The fuel aid that had reached the hospital was "barely enough for a few days", Abu Safiya said.
The World Health Organization has received no medical supplies in Gaza since the Rafah operation began on May 6, spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said Friday, adding that the closure of the crossing caused "a difficult situation".
On the diplomatic front, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was headed to the region for weekend talks.
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