Food, medicines, water purifiers, hygiene products and blankets: the aid was piling in Egypt's Sinai region at El Arish airport, which even opened an extra landing strip to cope with deliveries.
Rafah, the border crossing into Gaza that Egypt had promised to open on Friday, is a few dozen kilometres to the east.
It is the only crossing into the blockaded Palestinian territory that is not controlled by Israel.
President Joe Biden made an impassioned call for the United States to show global leadership by backing Israel and Ukraine, saying in a speech from the Oval Office Thursday that defeating Hamas and Russia was a vital US interest.
Biden, 80, said he would make an "urgent" request to Congress on Friday for funding to help Ukraine and Israel, arguing that this was an investment for the United States' future on the world stage for decades to come.
Eight sleeping children killed in one strike, doctors fighting but failing to save an unborn child -- such were the stories recounted by Gaza medics on Thursday as Israel stepped up its air strikes.
Gaza's Hamas-run government said that children made up 1,524 of the 3,785 people killed since Israel launched a relentless barrage on Gaza in retaliation for the October 7 Hamas attacks.
Grief-stricken parents carrying the bodies of children in white shrouds through Gaza streets have become a familiar sight since the war started.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged "rapid, unimpeded humanitarian access" to the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday, as Israel kept up its retaliation for Hamas's deadly attacks.
"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," Guterres said in Cairo, as calls mounted for aid to reach the territory's 2.4 million people.
"In plain terms, that means humanitarians need to be able to get aid in and they need to be able to distribute it safely."
The spiralling conflict in Gaza has put Qatar's hosting of a Hamas office under close scrutiny and could force a re-evaluation of ties between the Gulf state and the Palestinian militants, analysts say.
Middle East analyst Andreas Krieg, who was based in Qatar between 2013 and 2016, said Doha, would have to "push back" in its relationship with Hamas.
"I think there is a realisation that something's got to give in terms of that relationship, depending on what the USA administration are requesting," Krieg said.
Two accused masterminds of Hamas's October 7 attacks sit at the top of Israel's hit list as it threatens that every member of the militant group faces death when it invades Gaza.
Military strategist Mohammed Deif and political leader Yahya Sinwar have already spent time in Israeli or Palestinian jails and been the targets of multiple assassination attempts.
The hunt for the two most senior Hamas leaders in the beleaguered Gaza Strip will be fierce this time.
The first woman elected to Hamas's political leadership has been killed in an Israeli strike on the Gaza Strip, the militant group said Thursday.
Jamila Al-Shantee, 64, was killed Wednesday evening in Jabalia, in northern Gaza, Hamas said.
She became the first woman to be elected to the movement's political bureau, composed of 20 members, following an internal ballot in 2021.
Another woman, Fatima Shurab, joined the political top brass at the same time, through an automatic appointment as president of its women's commission.
The lawyer of Karim Benzema has hit back at France's interior minister after he accused the French football star who plays for Saudi team Al-Ittihad of links to the Muslim Brotherhood Islamist group.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin made the accusations after the reigning Ballon d'Or winner and former Real Madrid forward posted a message on social media about the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The European Union on Thursday awarded its top rights honour, the Sakharov Prize, to Mahsa Amini, the Iranian Kurdish woman who died in Iranian custody a year ago, and the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement her death triggered.
"The brutal murder of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini marked a turning point. It has triggered a women-led movement that is making history," European Parliament speaker Roberta Metsola said, using Amini's Kurdish first name as she announced the award.
Thousands of tonnes of aid bound for Gaza remained on the Egyptian side of the border Thursday, after US President Joe Biden struck a deal with Egypt and Israel to allow relief in.
Biden said Wednesday that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had agreed to "let up to 20 trucks through to begin with" to the heavily-bombarded Gaza Strip, starting Friday, giving authorities time to repair roads.
