<div style="text-align: justify; "><b><span style="font-size: 1rem;">The U.S. military finished installing a floating pier for the Gaza Strip on Thursday for delivering badly needed humanitarian aid into the enclave besieged over seven months of intense fighting in the Israel-Hamas war.</span><br></b></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Israel has been pressing its military operations in Rafah, a city along Gaza's southern border with Egypt, and in northern Gaza, where Hamas has regrouped. Around 600,000 Palestinians have been driven out of Rafah since the beginning of last week, the U.N. said. In northern Gaza, Israeli evacuation orders have displaced at least 100,000 people so far.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some 80% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million Palestinians have fled their homes since the start of the war, with many relocating multiple times.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">No food has entered the two main border crossings in southern Gaza for more than a week. Some 1.1 million Palestinians are on the brink of starvation, according to the U.N, while a “full-blown famine” is taking place in the north of the territory.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Israel has portrayed Rafah as the last Hamas stronghold, brushing off warnings from the United States and other allies that any major operation there would be catastrophic for civilians. - AP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd/fas</div>