Preparations have apparently begun in Egypt to open the border with the Gaza Strip for urgently needed aid deliveries. As news agency AFP heard from security circles on Friday, concrete blocks were removed near the border with the closed Palestinian territory. Initially, only twenty trucks carrying aid would be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip; according to the UN 2000 they are necessary.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary General António Guterres arrived in the north of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, near the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip. He is determined to open the border crossing so that humanitarian aid can be delivered to the more than two million people in the closed coastal strip, a UN spokeswoman said in Geneva.
Egypt says road repairs are still taking place
State-affiliated Egyptian TV channel Al Kahera News reported on Thursday that the Rafah border crossing, the only entry into the Gaza Strip not controlled by Israel, would open on Friday. However, the government in Cairo said roads damaged by Israeli airstrikes must first be repaired.
These repairs were still underway on Friday. AFP heard from eyewitnesses at the border that vehicles and Egyptian equipment were on site to repair the road on the Palestinian side of the border.
Twenty trucks are allowed to drive towards Gaza
The opening of the border to deliver humanitarian aid was mediated by US President Joe Biden. Israel, which completely closed off the Gaza Strip after the major attack by Hamas on October 7, agreed conditionally to allow twenty trucks to initially enter the Gaza Strip. The aid may only be distributed to civilians in the south of the Gaza Strip and may not fall into the hands of the radical Islamic Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.
There is dire need among the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million residents as Israel stopped delivering food, water, electricity and fuel after the major Hamas attack and aid convoys were stuck at the Egyptian border. According to UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Michael Ryan, a total of 2,000 trucks of aid are needed.
More than a million people have already fled
More than a million people have fled from the north of the Gaza Strip to the south, where Rafah is located, due to an expected Israeli ground offensive.
During a visit to the troops on Thursday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant indicated that the ground offensive would begin soon. “Now you see Gaza from afar, soon you will see it from within. The order will come soon,” said Gallant, who prepared the soldiers for “difficult” battles.
Source: Krone
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