The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza has 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 yesterday from Egypt, carrying medicine and food supplies, a media release from the Palestinian group Hamas stated.
Over 200 trucks carrying around 3,000 tonnes of aid had been positioned near the crossing for days ready to head into Gaza.
“The relief aid convoy that is supposed to enter on Saturday includes 20 trucks that carry medicine, medical supplies, and a limited amount of food supplies (canned goods),” a spokesman for Hamas’s media office said earlier.
The UN’s emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths, 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.
Israel has repeated that the aid shipments entering Gaza yesterday from Egypt would not include fuel.
This is a major concern for the besieged enclave’s population and the relief agencies providing essential services, as fuel is required to pump the water supply and power generators used for operating crucial facilities such as hospitals.
Residents traditionally need to fill up tanks to access water. Without fuel, they cannot operate trucks needed to transport water or pump it. Last Sunday, Gaza’s last functioning seawater desalination plant shut down due to fuel running out.
Without fuel, thousands of patients including newborn babies in incubators are at immediate risk. Doctors said that many patients, such as kidney and cancer patients, are already straddling a line between life and death.
“Fuel is absolutely critical,” communications director at UNRWA Juliette Touma, told Al Jazeera. “Fuel needs to come in. If we are expected, and we would like to, continue to deliver assistance to people, we will need fuel.”
For two weeks, Israel has blockaded the territory and launched waves of punishing air attacks following an October 7 rampage by Hamas fighters on towns in southern Israel.
Al Jazeera’s James Bays said that although the opening of the Rafah crossing is “significant” as it might lead to more aid being sent into Gaza, experts are saying more aid is 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. – Agencies
