US President Joe Biden hopes the first aid deliveries to Gaza can be brought from Egypt across the border to the isolated coastal strip in the next day or two. “I believe that in the next 24 to 48 hours the first 20 trucks will cross the border,” Biden said in Washington on Friday. Biden made the comments on the sidelines of a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU Council President Charles Michel.
He received a promise from Israel and Egypt that the previously closed Rafah border crossing would be open for deliveries. However, the access road was in poor condition and had to be paved.
The US President announced on Wednesday, upon returning from a short visit to Israel, that Egypt had assured him that, as a first step, up to 20 trucks with humanitarian goods would be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip through the Gaza border crossing. Rafah. Other deliveries may occur. However, Biden emphasized that if the Islamist Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, confiscates the deliveries, “then this will stop.” Many trucks with drinking water, food and medicine have been parked in front of the border crossing for a long time.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also hopes the Rafah border crossing will open soon. After the crisis began, it was a priority to open the passage. “This has been a theme in all my discussions and I am delighted that it will happen soon,” Sunak told reporters, according to British news agency PA. He visited Cairo on Friday and met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The day before, Sunak paid a brief visit to Israel and then traveled to Saudi Arabia.