Egyptian television channel Extra News published images of the vehicles crossing the Rafah border crossing
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid enter the Gaza Strip. (Photo: PL).
On October 21, trucks loaded with essential products began entering the Gaza Strip, amid intense bombardment and a 15-day total blockade by Israel.
Egyptian television channel Extra News published images of the vehicles crossing the Rafah border crossing, which connects that country with the coastal enclave and is the only one not controlled by Israel.
Videos showed groups of rescuers, aid workers and officials applauding the arrival of the trucks after news came from the other side about the dramatic situation facing 2.3 million Palestinians.
“Oh Palestine, oh Palestine, we are with you,” shouted many of those present at the scene.
From this side of the border, long lines of transport can be seen waiting to enter the enclave.
This comes just hours before an international peace summit sponsored by Egypt that will try to break the vicious circle of confrontations.
After the new wave of violence began on October 7, Israel banned the import of food, medicine and fuel and cut off water and electricity supplies in the area.
During a visit to Rafah yesterday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the arrival of the supplies collected over several days in Gaza represented “the difference between death and life.”
“I have repeatedly said that it is necessary to condemn Hamas’s barbaric attack, but I have also said that it must not be a pretext for collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” he stressed during a press conference there.
Two days ago, the Egyptian government announced an agreement allowing the import of essential products into the Gaza Strip.
An official statement said the pact was concluded after a conversation between Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and American President Joe Biden, who one day visited Israel to show his support for the war campaign against that coastal enclave.
The Israeli press revealed that in return for his support for a military operation in Gaza, Biden urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow food and medicine into the besieged area amid a wave of international criticism of the siege.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry this week called unacceptable attempts to misrepresent Cairo’s position on the status of the Rafah crossing, which borders Gaza.
“We never closed the site, but due to four Israeli bombings it is not functioning normally,” he noted.
Last week, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry announced the designation of El-Arish airport in the northeastern Sinai Peninsula as an international aid center for the neighboring Gaza Strip.
This ministry called on the international community to send supplies of essential products to this terminal for transport by land through the Rafah border crossing, a few dozen kilometers away.
Since then, numerous aircraft have landed there carrying cargo from Turkey, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Tunisia, as well as from the World Health Organization.
