to report «iusnews»; The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza opened to let a small amount of desperately needed aid flow to Palestinians running short of food, medicine and water in the territory that is under an Israeli siege.
A convoy including 20 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Saturday from Egypt, carrying medicine and food supplies, a statement from Palestinian group Hamas said, Al-Jazeera reported.
More than 200 trucks carrying roughly 3,000 tonnes of aid had been positioned near the crossing for days before heading into Gaza.
“The relief aid convoy that is supposed to enter today includes 20 trucks that carry medicine, medical supplies, and a limited amount of food supplies (canned goods),” Hamas’s media office said earlier.
Martin Griffiths, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, welcomed the delivery, saying it followed “days of deep and intense negotiations with all relevant sides to make sure that aid operation into Gaza resumes as quickly as possible and with the right conditions”.
“I am confident that this delivery will be the start of a sustainable effort to provide essential supplies – including food, water, medicine and fuel – to the people of Gaza, in a safe, dependable, unconditional and unimpeded manner,” he added.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also said, “I was at the Rafah border yesterday and I saw a paradox there”. “Food trucks on one side, and empty stomachs on the other,” he told the Cairo conference.
Twenty trucks have begun rolling into the Gaza Strip, but Guterres said “much, much more” was needed.
The UN chief called for a renewed commitment to bringing humanitarian aid into the strip to avert a humanitarian catastrophe.
“Trucks need to move as quickly as possible in a massive, sustained and safe way from Egypt into Gaza,” he said, adding, “We are working non-stop with all relevant parties to make it happen.”
For weeks Israel blockaded the territory and launched waves of punishing air attacks following an October 7 attack by Hamas fighters on towns in Southern Israel.
Al-Jazeera’s James Bays said that although the opening of the crossing is “significant” as it might lead to more aid being sent into Gaza, experts are saying more is aid needed.
“I have to say 20 trucks, given that Gaza used to get – in terms of aid coming into Gaza before this conflict started – about 100 trucks of aid a day … so this really is a drop in the ocean,” he said.
Many in Gaza, reduced to eating one meal a day and without enough water to drink, are waiting desperately for aid. Hospital workers were also in urgent need of medical supplies and fuel for their generators as they treat thousands of people wounded in the bombings.
Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Programme, told Al-Jazeera that 20 trucks of aid is not enough.
“The situation inside Gaza is dire. Not only is there no food, there is no water, electricity, or fuel. And that combination is not only catastrophic but can lead to more starvation and disease as well,” she said, adding, “We’ve got to get more trucks in.”
Israel has sealed off the territory for two weeks, forcing Palestinians to ration food and drink filthy water from wells. Hospitals say they are running low on medicine and fuel for emergency generators amid a territory-wide blackout.
Hamas’s media office issued a statement on Saturday saying that expected truckloads of aid “will not change the catastrophic medical conditions in Gaza”.
Meanwhile, Palestinian officials in Gaza said the "first limited convoy of basic needs" that has entered the besieged strip through Egypt was not enough and stressed that a humanitarian corridor must remain open permanently to allow the entry of more supplies and the exit of wounded people needing treatment abroad.
Salama Marouf, the head of the Gaza-based government media office, said in a statement the aid trucks about to enter on Saturday morning would not be able to "change the humanitarian catastrophe that the Gaza Strip is experiencing".
Marouf added in his statement that Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees that is set to receive the aid, should distribute it across the Gaza Strip. His call came amid some reports that the entry of aid was conditioned on it being distributed only in Southern Gaza.
