(EP/EFE).- The Israeli army has warned that it will not allow humanitarian aid to arrive in southern Gaza this Saturday through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt – the first shipment since the start of the war with Hamas 7. October – reaches the north of the Gaza Strip, where the military has ordered residents to withdraw immediately, while at the same time attacking the Islamist movement’s positions there.
The displacement of civilians has increased overpopulation in the south of the Gaza Strip, where more than a million people live without access to basic needs, say the Palestinian authorities and the United Nations.
However, at a press conference this morning, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari indicated that all humanitarian aid would remain in the south of the Gaza Strip, and he further warned that he would block the supply of fuel used to fire rockets could not allow Palestinian militias to invade Israeli territory, reports the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Aharonot.
Said stressed that the supplies delivered to the Palestinian side of Rafah were “only medical aid.”
Currently, about twenty trucks carrying “medicines, medical instruments and a limited amount of food, mainly canned goods” entered the Palestinian enclave this morning, according to Hamas, the territory’s authority. North Sinai Red Crescent President Khaled Said told EFE that “the border crossing is closed on both sides, both from the Egyptian and Palestinian sides, after the 20 trucks that entered through the Rafah Pass those who entered the Strip will be unloaded their cargo and return to the Egyptian lands.
Said stressed that the supplies delivered to the Palestinian side of Rafah were “only medical aid,” that none of the shipments contained fuel and that it was not known when a new aid shipment would be made to the Palestinian enclave and how many trucks be able to enter. He briefly noted that “there is no information about the departure of foreign citizens in Gaza” and stressed that “nothing is yet known” about when and how this might be carried out.
Before aid arrived, between 300 and 400 foreigners had gathered near the border crossing, most of them Americans and including Palestinians with passports from other countries, as they were given the opportunity to leave the Gaza Strip for Egypt. However, after the trucks left and the crossing closed, many of them decided to stop waiting and leave the pass, although about 150 are still waiting in the hope of eventually heading to Egyptian soil.
“The assistance was prepared with basic medical and assistance needs and was based on the needs of the Palestinian Red Crescent.”
The Egyptian Red Crescent announced in a statement that this Saturday it brought humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip to be delivered to the Palestinian Red Crescent, “loaded onto a group of trucks as a second delivery,” since the first delivery was already was delivered on October 9th. before the complete blockade of the Gaza Strip ordered by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant came into effect.
“The assistance was prepared with basic medical and assistance needs and was based on the needs of the Palestinian Red Crescent,” the statement said, detailing that the device was coordinated with state authorities to allow the passage of trucks from the Rafah border crossing to facilitate. The deputy director of the OCHA office in the Palestinian territories, Andrea de Domenico, admitted to EFE that this aid will not be enough for the Palestinians in Gaza, where, according to OCHA, 2.3 million people live, including 1.4 million, are internally displaced by the Israeli bombings in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
De Domenico noted that there are “negotiations” between the parties concerned so that the delivery of aid is “sustainable” over time. From the Egyptian part of Rafá, volunteers told EFE that no ambulances or tankers had arrived and that aid was being provided by the Egyptian Red Crescent and NGOs that are part of the ruling coalition, the National Alliance for Civil Development. Currently, the new administrative capital Cairo is hosting the peace summit bringing together 54 international leaders to address the conflict and where United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said the Gaza Strip needed “continuous aid deliveries” of the required scale .
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