On Saturday, the first trucks with humanitarian aid supplies – especially urgently needed medicines – arrived in the Gaza Strip. Egypt temporarily opened the Rafah border crossing in the morning. The UN said the first convoy was nothing more than a “drop in the ocean”.
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After a long tug of war and with the mediation of US President Joe Biden, Egypt opened the border on Saturday at around 10am local time (9am CET), and according to international media reports, 20 trucks were allowed to pass.
The cargo was then transferred to smaller vehicles and taken to UN bases in the southern Gaza Strip. Israel does not allow fuel supplies and the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip in general is now extremely critical. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), water, in particular, is very scarce.
Long train at the border
On the Egyptian side, around 175 trucks with relief supplies had been waiting for days. UN Secretary-General António Guterres said during a visit to the country on Friday that the trucks were “not just trucks, they are a lifeline”. They “made the difference between life and death for so many people in the Gaza Strip.” According to Guterres, trucks must be able to leave “as quickly as possible and as many as possible”.
Devastating numbers of victims
On Saturday it will be exactly two weeks since the Islamist Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel. In the attacks, more than 1,400 people died on the Israeli side, more than 200 were kidnapped, two of whom (both Americans) have been released so far. Hamas now estimates the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks at more than 4,000. The Gaza Strip was completely isolated by Israel following the Hamas attack on October 7.
A million people on the run
The situation of the approximately 2.4 million residents is extremely critical, as Israel stopped providing food, water, electricity and fuel after the terrorist attack on its territory and aid convoys were stuck on the Egyptian border.
More than a million people have fled from the north of the Gaza Strip to the south, where Rafah is located, in the face of an expected Israeli ground offensive. According to WHO emergency director Michael Ryan, a total of 2,000 trucks with relief supplies are needed.