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The foreign doctors were required to sign statements releasing Egypt from all liability, Dousis-Rassias said. A representative of Egyptian border director Badawie Abd El-Aziz said he expects more foreign doctors to cross in coming days, but he would not comment on why the foreign volunteers were barred access to Gaza until today.

Dousis-Rassias suspects that Israel is behind Egypt's lackluster efforts to get aid shipments, foreign volunteers and journalists through the Rafah gate.

"Israel knows that non-Arabs and non-Muslims will report things objectively, and they don't want Western blood on their hands," he said. "Unfortunately, human life has a passport."

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We were unable to confirm this in Jerusalem because of Israel's unwillingness to admit to any negotiations with Hamas, but rocket firing was soon stopped and there was an increase in supplies of food, water, medicine and fuel. Yet the increase was to an average of about 20 percent of normal levels. And this fragile truce was partially broken on Nov. 4, when Israel launched an attack in Gaza to destroy a defensive tunnel being dug by Hamas inside the wall that encloses Gaza.

Amnesty International said people in Gaza had run out of food. Donatella Rovera, the organization's Middle East expert, told the Berliner Zeitung newspaper: "The general situation has worsened continuously over the past two years, but it's never happened before that people didn't have anything to eat." Supplies of rice, sugar and bread had virtually run out, she said.

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The Israeli government says it has allowed 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid, mainly food and medicine, into Gaza over the past week.

Protests against the Israeli offensive are being staged around the world, including in Manila, in the Philippines, where demonstrators hurled a huge shoe effigy towards the Israeli Embassy.