Trucks carrying humanitarian aid began crossing the Rafah terminal (Egypt) this Saturday on their way to the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, according to an official from the Egyptian Red Crescent.
Egyptian state television showed several trucks passing through the huge gates of the border post.on the 15th day of the war between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement, in power in Gaza, after tons of aid had been piling up for days waiting to be delivered to Gaza’s 2.4 million residents, half of whom They are children, who are without water. electricity or fuel.
20 humanitarian aid trucks have just crossed the Rafah border crossing in Egypt, heading towards the Gaza Strip. They transport medicine and food supplies, according to a Hamas statement.
200 trucks with around 3,000 tons of humanitarian aid are… pic.twitter.com/2ZeV8KNZTw
– GugaNoblat (@GugaNoblat) October 21, 2023
The opening of the border lasted just a few minutes. According to The Guardian, Only 20 trucks arrived with food and basic medicines to treat chronic diseases and traumatic situations..
The Al-Arabyia agency indicates, however, that A shipment of fuel arrived at a hospital in the Gaza Strip..
The border post between Egypt and the Gaza Strip was reopened this Saturday to allow the flow of aid and the departure of Palestinians from the territory.
More than 200 trucks loaded with around 3,000 tons of aid have been near the post for several days.waiting for authorization to enter.
The US embassy in Egypt warned of the “potentially chaotic environment” that opening the border could createwith an avalanche towards Egypt of citizens with dual nationality fleeing Gaza and with deliveries of first aid.
As the conflict enters its third week, Aid is desperately needed for Gazans.whose territory continues to be bombed incessantly by Israel, which has promised to “annihilate” Hamas.
This Saturday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that the number of people who have left their homes in Gaza due to Israeli attacks now stands at 1.4 million, almost two-thirds of the 2.2 million people living in the territory.
In its daily report on the situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories since the start of the conflict on October 7, the coordination office states that around 544,000 of these displaced people are housed in shelters managed by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Assistance to Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
More than 100,000 are in churches, hospitals and other public buildings in Gaza City, according to the report, which puts the death toll in the Gaza Strip since the start of hostilities at 4,137, according to data from the Ministry of Health. Loop.
The UN warns of overcrowding in many refugee shelters and highlights that, in some of them, only one liter of water can be provided per person for drinking, hygiene and other uses (the minimum, according to international standards, should be 15 liters ).
“Overpopulation and the lack of basic necessities have caused tensions among the displaced,” states the daily UN report, which acknowledges not having information on the situation of many refugees in northern Gaza, the area most affected by Israeli attacks.
In addition to the 4,137 deaths in Gaza (1,661 children and 908 women, according to Palestinian authorities), the attacks caused 13,162 injuries, says the report, which also counts 82 deaths (25 of whom were children) and 1,425 injuries in the West Bank. .
The death toll in Israel remains at 1,400, with 4,629 injured, almost all of them in the terrorist attacks of October 7, says the daily UN report, which also mentions one Israeli dead and nine injured in the West Bank.
The UN highlights that at least a thousand people are missing in the Gaza Strip, possibly in the rubble of buildings destroyed in the attacks.
Some of them may still be alive, the report says, noting that Palestinian Civil Defense rescue teams are trying to search for trapped people “despite continued airstrikes, a shortage of fuel for their vehicles and equipment, and limited or non-existent mobile phone connections. “.
The report recalls, citing data from the World Health Organization (WHO), that Gaza suffered 62 attacks on health facilities, including 19 hospitals and 23 ambulances, with at least 16 health professionals dead, while 193 schools and other educational buildings were damaged. affected.
The UN World Food Program (WFP) highlights that three of the five bakeries it manages to produce one of the population’s main staple foods have already ceased operations due to lack of ingredients and fuel.
In the Gaza Strip, 4,137 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed in incessant shelling carried out by the Israeli army in retaliation, according to the Hamas Health Ministry in Gaza.
*News updated at 9:37 am
Source: TSF
