It has taken almost two weeks of negotiations and a visit to the same border post between Egypt and Gaza by the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres. But humanitarian aid began to enter the southern Strip this Saturday morning for the first time since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7. As reported by the United Nations agency for humanitarian affairs (OCHA), there are currently around twenty trucks, far below the needs of southern Gaza, where their distribution is limited. More than 80% of the population of the Strip is concentrated there, including those who already lived there and the 700,000 displaced from the north by order of the Army to facilitate the land invasion, according to new data released this Saturday by the military spokesman, Daniel Hagari. The trucks, from the Egyptian Red Crescent, transport food, water and medicine. They are the only three supplies whose entry Israel and the United States admit in the agreements reached on Wednesday with Egypt, under pressure due to the serious humanitarian situation in the Strip.
It is not clear what will happen from now on. Neither how many trucks will cross each day nor the opening hours of the crossing. Israel and the United States condition the entry of aid that it stays in the south and does not reach the hands of Hamas, which has managed the border crossing and the administration of the Strip since 2007, with mayors, ministries and tax collection. In fact, discrepancies over the merchandise inspection mechanism were the main reason for postponing the urgent arrival of aid for 72 hours.
Another unknown is whether foreigners or Palestinians with a second nationality will be able to leave Gaza. There are already about 400 people, of different nationalities, concentrated on the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing in the hope of crossing a territory where Israeli troops plan to stay for months. Earlier in the day, the United States Embassy in Jerusalem advised its citizens in Gaza to be alert and informed them that the post will remain open until 3:00 p.m. (2:00 p.m. Spanish peninsular time). Dozens of people (especially Palestinians with American nationality) already stood there in vain days ago, due to rumors about an imminent opening of Rafah that did not arrive.
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“This first convoy must not be the last,” stressed the UN chief coordinator for humanitarian aid, Martin Griffiths. “I am confident that this shipment is the beginning of a sustained effort to provide essential supplies, including food, water, medicine and fuel, to the people of Gaza. […]. The population of Gaza has suffered for decades, and the international community cannot continue to fail them,” he said on the social network X, formerly known as Twitter. Israel vetoes the entry of fuel and any supplies through its border as long as the militias have hostages (which she estimated this Saturday at at least 210). Gaza needs it not only to distribute aid or scarce road trips, but also for electricity generators for hospitals and pumps to extract water from wells.
Guterres expressed himself along similar lines at the international summit on the war being held this Saturday in Egypt, with leaders and representatives from practically the entire world: “The people of Gaza need an agreement for much, much more. A continued delivery of aid to Gaza on the scale needed. “We are working tirelessly with all parties to achieve this.”
In the opening speech of the event, the president of the host country, Abdel Fattá al Sisi, called for “a roadmap with the aim of ending the humanitarian crisis and beginning to activate the flow of aid to the Gaza Strip.” The acting president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, is one of those attending the summit, which is being held in the New Administrative Capital of Egypt, east of Cairo.
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