The Rafah Crossing has opened between Egypt and Gaza to allow much-needed aid to be transported into the Gaza Strip, according to reports.

The first trucks began arriving from Egypt shortly before 11 a.m. local time on Saturday.

Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007, said a relief aid convoy of 20 trucks would enter the city carrying medicine, medical supplies and a limited amount of food and canned goods.

President Biden on Friday predicted the aid trucks would arrive in Gaza within "24 to 48 hours" as he met with leaders from the European Union.

“I got a commitment from the Israelis and the president of Egypt that the crossing will be open,” Biden told reporters. “The highway had to be repaved, it was in very bad shape, and I believe that within the next 24 to 48 hours, the first 20 trucks will come across with aid.”

With Post wires

The US destroyer that shot multiple cruise missiles and drones down with Israel potentially as the target was engaged in the battle for 9 hours

Four land-attack cruise missiles and 15 drones were shot down in the Red Sea by the USS Carney altering being launched by Houthi forces in Yemen, a US official familiar with the situation told CNN.

Despite the Pentagon initially reporting the projectiles were "potentially" heading toward Israel, their trajectory has been analyzed, and it is believed that they were launched with the nation as their intended target.

“This action was a demonstration of the integrated air and missile defense architecture that we have built in the Middle East and that we are prepared to utilize whenever necessary to protect our partners and our interests,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters Thursday.

US officials shot down the projectiles after determining they “posed a potential threat,” Ryder said, noting the military is trying to assess what the target was.

The barrage of drones and missiles was launched miles outside of the areas of the Israeli-Hamas War and showed signs the conflict could be escalating beyond the Gaza Strip and Israel.

A cancer patient who attended the Supernova rave in Israel when Hamas terrorists invaded and slaughtered countless innocent civilians on Oct. 7 recounted his selfless act of heroism when he jumped on grenades in a bid to save others, according to multiple reports.

Raz Peri, who is battling lymphoma, said he was at the festival to “feel alive again” but had to quickly turn to survival mode following the invasion, he told CNN from his hospital bed.

The 20-year-old watched in horror as “40 to 50” Hamas terrorists gunned down festivalgoers fleeing in their car during the early stages of the attack.

“I saw the terrorists shooting one, two, three and they go down,” he said of watching Hamas kill unarmed civilians as he fled to safety with others.

As Peri sought shelter in a roadside bunker with four others, he recalled the terrorists approaching their hideout and speaking Arabic which caused one of the women to scream out of fear.

He told the outlet that he ‘had nothing, just my hands’ and was forced into a fistfight with one terrorist as they entered the doorway following the scream.

Other Hamas members began firing at Peri but instead struck a hiding festivalgoer in the leg.

The fight ended outside the shelter with Hamas terrorists accidentally shooting dead their comrade, the outlet reported.

Quickly retreating into the shelter, the remaining terrorists surrounded the structure and peered in with “crazy eyes” before throwing multiple grenades inside.

Peri then selflessly threw his body onto the grenades to absorb the blast and save the others.

The explosion tore through his leg and left him partially unconscious, according to The Times.

After others in the group began rendering aid to those hurt, one man hiding decided to leave, which prompted Hamas terrorists to come back into the shelter with their guns blazing.

The terrorists killed a man and his wife as they returned to the shelter to mercilessly kill the remaining innocent civilians still alive.

Peri revealed he pulled the dead woman’s body over himself and “others” to play dead as the terrorists entered, but still suffered a gunshot wound in his stomach.

“I don’t feel pain at this time. I just listen for the cars to go away,” he told the outlet.

The ruthless terrorists then left the area, prompting Peri and others to go for help while two surviving members stayed back.

Unfortunately, those who remained would be killed before help arrived, Peri shared.

“When I go to the town, everyone is dead. I saw girls with their pants down. I saw a knife in the body,” he told CNN, gesturing that the knife was sticking out of the girl’s chest.

He found safety with surviving family in a nearby town, who treated his wounds till further help arrived.

“I have cancer. I go to the festival to listen to the music for my soul. What I have seen with my eyes I can never take this [away],” he told the outlet.

The United States Embassy in Israel said they’ve “received information” that the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt will open at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

“If the border is opened, we do not know how long it will remain open for foreign citizens to depart Gaza,” the US Embassy based in Jerusalem announced.

“We anticipate that many people would attempt to cross should the border open, and U.S. citizens attempting to enter Egypt should expect a potentially chaotic and disorderly environment on both sides of the crossing.”

The US said the situation “remains dynamic and fluid” and that security in the area is “unpredictable” for those thinking about crossing.

“You should assess your personal safety and security before choosing to move toward the border or trying to cross,” the Embassy stated.

WASHINGTON - US President Joe Biden did not hear a question from a reporter who asked whether Israel should delay a potential ground invasion of Gaza until more hostages can get out, when he answered, "yes," the White House said.

"The president was far away. He didn't hear the full question. The question sounded like 'Would you like to see more hostages released?' He wasn't commenting on anything else," White House spokesperson Ben LaBolt said.

Biden was walking up the steps to board Air Force One when a reporter shouted the question over the sound of the plane's engines. Biden stopped for a moment and said, "yes," and then proceeded onto the plane.

The Islamist group Hamas released two US hostages, mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan, who were kidnapped in its attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7.

One of the goals of Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel was to disrupt efforts to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and the Jewish state, President Biden said Friday. 

“One of the reasons why they acted like they did, why Hamas moved on Israel, is because they knew I was about to sit down with the Saudis,” Biden, 80, said at a campaign fundraising event in Washington. 

“Because the Saudis wanted to recognize Israel and that would in fact unite the Middle East,” he added. 

Since 2020, Israel has reached diplomatic breakthroughs with several Muslim-majority nations, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, but Saudi Arabia has yet to recognize Israeli sovereignty. 

Hamas’ unprecedented Oct. 7 raid, which killed over 1,000 people in southern Israel, came amid recent talks aimed at thawing relations between Jerusalem and Riyadh as part of a trilateral agreement with the US.

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Several relatives of former Michigan Rep. Justin Amash were killed when an Israeli airstrike destroyed part of a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza where they were sheltering, he said Friday.

Amash, who in 2011 became the first Palestinian American to serve in Congress, said in an X post that some of his kinfolk had been sheltering inside the Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church when the airstrike happened. 

“I was really worried about this. With great sadness, I have now confirmed that several of my relatives (including Viola and Yara pictured here) were killed at Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza, where they had been sheltering, when part of the complex was destroyed as the result of an Israeli airstrike,” Amash said, sharing a photo of two of his relatives who died in the bombing celebrating Christmas. 

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A Long Island native who survived Hamas’ slaughter at an Israeli music festival said she still doesn’t feel safe after returning home due to the increasing acts of antisemitism put on display at the countless protests that have erupted since the war began.

Natalie Sanandaji, 28, thought the worst was over after surviving the horrifying attack on Oct. 7 and returning home a week later, but the Jewish New Yorker said the ensuing onslaught of antisemitism scares her.

“A lot of people have asked if I’m scared to go back to Israel after everything that’s happened, and my honest answer is … now more than ever, I want to move to Israel,” Sanandaji told The Post as she calmly recalled her terrifying ordeal Friday.

“Even with everything going on, I feel safer there than I do in the US right now.”

The Iranian Israeli, who lives in a very Jewish community on Long Island, said this is the first time in her life that she started to get hate for being Jewish.

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President Joe Biden said Hamas attacked Israel because of the country's effort to improve relations with Saudi Arabia.

“One of the reasons why they acted like they did, why Hamas moved on Israel, is because they knew I was about to sit down with the Saudis,” Biden said Friday. “Because the Saudis wanted to recognize Israel and that would in fact unite the Middle East.”

The president was looking to improve relations between the two Middle Eastern countries by creating a framework that would make the Saudis recognize Israel in exchange for U.S. security.

Biden, who visited Israel just days before, submitted a massive $106 billion emergency spending measure to bolster both Israel and Ukraine's military.

One of the American hostages released by Hamas on Friday could be back in the States early next week, according to a report.

Natalie Raanan, 17, and her mother, Judith, 59, were freed nearly two weeks after being abducted when the terrorists stormed Kibbutz Nahal Oz on Oct. 7.

“We have heard tentatively that she might be coming back to Chicago sometime early next week,” Ben Raanan, told CNN of his teen sister on Friday. 

He got wind of their rescue through the media, he told the network. 

“This all moved so quickly, I was getting texts from reporters I met with saying this happened,” Raanan said of the release of Natalie and his stepmother Judith. “I believe it's because the government didn't want to call us before it had been confirmed.”

An emotional Raanan told NewsNation that he thinks he’s “just going to hug them and just not let them go. I don’t think there are words to describe the emotions that we’re going to be feeling” when he’s finally reunited with them. 

The American hostages who were released from Hamas custody on Friday were seen being freed in newly released footage.

Video circulating on X shows Judith Raanan and her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie being filmed up close before they walk over to a first aid vehicle flanked by several men.

The pair was being held in Gaza but were reportedly en route to a military base in central Israel to reunite with their family, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on X.

US President Joe Biden announced later Friday afternoon he had spoken to the freed hostages and pledged to support them over the "terrible ordeal" they endured.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was seen in a bulletproof vest while visiting Kfar Azar in Israel on Friday.

"70 people from the town of Kfar Aza were massacred by Hamas," the governor wrote on X. "I was the first U.S. official to visit the once-peaceful community & was horrified by what I saw: the blood-stained ground, stench of death, bombed-out homes.

"We must ensure October 7 is a day the world never forgets."

Hochul landed in Israel two days ago as part of her "solidarity mission" amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.