LISA DESJARDINS: Good evening.

I'm Lisa Desjardins.

John Yang is away.

There are grains of relief tonight for a few of the millions who are trapped inside the Gaza Strip.

The first truckloads of supplies were allowed into Gaza from Egypt today a small but significant aid delivery after two weeks of war.

This as Israel's military is vowing to increase its airstrikes against the Hamas led territory.

The death toll continues to mount, more than 1,400 Israelis and nearly 4,400 Palestinians killed since the start of the conflict and the possibility of an Israeli ground invasion into Gaza still looms large.

Special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen has a report tonight.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: At the Rafah Border Crossing a rare celebratory moment as the gates opened for the first time since the start of the war.

20 trucks full of humanitarian aid including food, water and medicine entered Gaza.

MAHMOUD ABU TATTA, Palestine Red Crescent Society (through translator): This isn't something new for us.

And we have experienced with the distribution of the supplies.

We've been through for wars before.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: But humanitarian agencies say the aid is not enough.

Over 100 trucks are still stuck at the border barred from crossing.

UNICEF says the drinking water sent today is only enough for 22,000 people for one day.

Gaza's population is approximately 2 million people, with 80 percent already relying on aid before the war.

At a summit on the crisis in Egypt's capital Cairo, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Palestinian civilians must not bear the brunt of the war.

ANTONIO GUTERRES, Secretary-General, United Nations: Nothing can justify the reprehensible assault by Hamas, that terrorized Israeli civilians, and those abhorrent attacks can never justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Meanwhile, the Israeli Defense Forces pummeled Gaza with fresh air strikes overnight, as they target Hamas operatives got in Gaza City an airstrike hit what residency was a family home.

WOMAN (through translator): While they were sleeping the strike hit them innocent children with their father and grandmother.

What did they do?

Did they carry weapons?

These are innocent children who know nothing tell us when this will end.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Workers at the Al Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza tried desperately to keep up with the pace of new victims.

The IDF continues to urge civilians to move south even as they strike areas there too.

REAR ADM. DANIEL HAGARI, Israeli Military Spokesperson (through translator): The humanitarian conditions in the strip are under control.

We continue to stress that the residents of the North should move to the south.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: Tensions also remain high inside Israel.

The Israeli authorities have once again banned young men between 16 and 60 from entering the Al Aqsa compound for Friday prayers, a group has gathered in front of the checkpoint where they're praying as security forces turn them away.

Children collected here alongside their fathers to be as close as they could to the mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.

Suddenly armed Jerusalem Border Police arrived to push back worshipers as they knelt in the midst of prayer.

The measure is intended to prevent conflict around the contentious site.

But the faithful here say banning them is against their religious rights.

From tension in Israel to relief in the U.S., in Illinois, the family of freed Hamas hostages Natalie and Judith Raanan looked forward to their homecoming.

SIGAL ZAMIR, Raanan Family Member: This is a small joy in our family, but hopefully for all the other hostages and all the other families just keep praying and hopefully good news will come.

LEILA MOLANA-ALLEN: A rare moment of good news in a conflict with precious little of it.

For PBS News Weekend, I'm Leila Molana-Allen.