Humanitarian aid trucks started entering the besieged Gaza Strip from the Rafah crossing in Egypt on October 21, two weeks after the Israeli attacks began in Gaza after Hamas attack in Tel Aviv.
The trucks crossed into Gaza from Egypt despite continuous bombardment. Since October 7 and Hamas attacks, Israeli retaliatory bombardment has killed more than 4,100 people in the Gaza enclave, including 1,500 children.
Israel has also imposed a total siege on Gaza, cutting off supplies of food, water, electricity, and fuel. U.S. During his visit to Tel Aviv, President Joe Biden pressurized Israel to allow the first of 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to enter Gaza via Egypt.
First aid into Gaza
The first humanitarian aid convoy included 20 trucks that carry medicine, medical supplies, and a limited amount of food supplies into Gaza – home to 2.3 million people and one of the most densely populated area.
Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt is the only outlet to get people out of the enclave and supplies into it. But the crossing has been closed for much of the past week. Hundreds of metric tons of international aid have been stalled in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, awaiting a deal for safe delivery to Gaza.
“Those trucks need to move as quickly as possible in a massive, sustained and safe way from Egypt into Gaza,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a peace summit in Cairo.
“But the people of Gaza need a commitment for much, much more — a continuous delivery of aid to Gaza at the scale that is needed,” he said. “We are working nonstop with all parties that are relevant to make it happen.”
Egypt’s state-owned Al-Qahera news, which is close to security agencies, said just 20 trucks had crossed into Gaza on Saturday, out of more than 200 trucks carrying roughly 3,000 tons of aid lining up near the crossing for days.
Key facts
- This war is the deadliest of five Gaza wars for both sides.
- Gaza Health Ministry said Friday that 4,137 Palestinians have been killed and more than 13,000 others wounded.
- More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed, mostly in the initial attack on October 7 when Hamas militants stormed into Israel.
- At least 200 people are believed to be in captivity of Hamas, according to Israel.
More and continuous delivery of aid required
WHO’s emergencies chief, Dr. Michael Ryan, shared a long list of medical supplies that his agency hopes to get into Gaza with five truckloads that it has at the ready: amputation kits, intubation kits, pneumothorax kits for people with punctured lungs, wound dressings, anesthetics and painkillers.
Aid groups have welcomed the move but said the convoy of 20 trucks is just a “a drop in the ocean”. Ryan said ”it shouldn’t be 20 trucks. It should be 2,000 trucks. And we shouldn’t have to be making these choices.”
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said in a statement that the “life-saving supplies” in the convoy are provided by the Egyptian Red Crescent and the United Nations. The supplies will be received by the Palestinian Red Crescent, with the support of the United Nations, he said.
UN chief Antonio Guterres reiterated his call for a “humanitarian cease-fire” and said any deliveries – after nearly two weeks with Gaza cut off – should continue.
World leaders attend Cairo peace summit to ‘de-escalate’ Israel-Hamas war
As dozens of trucks lined up near Rafah border crossing, world leaders gathered in Cairo seeking ways to de-escalate the war but the summit ended without any major outcomes.
Representatives from countries including Jordan, France, Germany, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, the United States, Qatar and South Africa attended the one-day meeting on October 21, together with United Nations and European Union officials.