Israel-Hamas war: aid trucks enter Gaza as Rafah crossing opens

The Rafah crossing point between Egypt and Gaza has finally opened to allow 20 Egyptian trucks carrying medical supplies across, after a week of intense negotiations involving the US, Israel, Egypt and the UN.

Under the agreement, only 20 trucks will be allowed on Saturday, deliveries from the Egyptian Red Crescent to the Palestinian Red Crescent organisation. A UN official said UN trucks were not expected to cross until Monday.

The Israeli government has demanded to see proof that the aid deliveries are not seized or diverted by Hamas, before authorising further deliveries. A UN official said on Saturday that “verification procedures are still under discussion”.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization, said on social media that the medical supplies being sent into Gaza “include trauma and chronic disease medicines, and basic essential medicines”.

He called for the protection of humanitarian teams in Gaza and “sustained humanitarian access”.

Twenty lorryloads of supplies is a tiny proportion of the humanitarian aid that used to cross the Rafah border before the current conflict erupted with a Hamas massacre of Israeli civilians on 7 October. The daily average used to be about 500 trucks a day, aid officials said.

Martin Griffiths, the UN’s head of humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, said: “I am confident that this delivery will be the start of a sustainable effort to provide essential supplies – including food, water, medicine and fuel – to the people of Gaza, in a safe, dependable, unconditional and unimpeded manner.

“Two weeks since the start of hostilities, the humanitarian situation in Gaza – already precarious – has reached catastrophic levels. It is critical that aid reaches people in need wherever they are across Gaza, and at the right scale.”

The planned convoys, under the current agreement with Israel, will not include fuel, which is critical for hospital generators and operating water pumps and desalination plants at a time when the water ration at UN shelters is down to one litre a person a day for all purposes, well below international standards for minimal consumption.

Egyptian and US officials first believed a week ago they had a deal with the Israeli government to open Rafah, but Israel insisted on guarantees that the aid consignments would be thoroughly checked to ensure they consisted only of food, water and medical supplies, and that arrangements would be in place inside Gaza for the aid to be distributed without Hamas involvement.

Joe Biden sealed the agreement during his visit to Tel Aviv on Wednesday but it took another three days for the crossing to open, while Egyptian workers repaired bomb damage to the crossing from the Sinai peninsula into Gaza.

Part of the agreement was for hundreds of Palestinian-Americans inside Gaza to be able to leave, but Agence France-Presse reported that four ambulances, two UN vehicles and two Red Cross vehicles entered the border terminal area from the Gaza side.

The ActionAid communications and advocacy coordinator, Riham Jafari, said: “We welcome this morning’s aid convoy into Gaza, but it’s clear that what’s being delivered today is barely a drop in the ocean. Before this crisis began, around 500 aid trucks would normally cross the border every day providing a vital lifeline to millions of Gazans who were already facing a humanitarian crisis.

“Aid trucks also did not bring with them the fuel needed to power hospitals, keep ambulances moving, or to pump water from the ground.

“We’re hearing stories every day of communities coming together to donate whatever fuel they have remaining to keep incubators going for newborns who are in a critical condition. With 2.2 million Gazans facing a humanitarian crisis, we’re urgently calling for a ceasefire and for the opening of humanitarian corridors.”

A “peace summit” began in Cairo on Saturday, attended mostly by Gulf Arab and European leaders. There was no senior representation from the US, however, nor any Israeli delegation.