First aid convoy to Gaza Strip enters Rafah crossing…aid too little compared to needs in Gaza

The first trucks belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent and UNRWA began this morning to enter the Egyptian side of Rafah crossing in order to transport aid to Gaza Strip which is being exposed to an incessant Isareli aggression over the past 15 days and which has so far resulted in the martyrdom of 4137 Palestinians and the wounding of more than 13,000 others, the displacement of more than a million Palestinians and the destruction of the infrastructure and the collapse of the health system in Gaza Strip.

Earlier, the Palestinian media outlets reported that the first trucks belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent and UNRWA entered the Egyptian side of Rafah crossing at 10 a.m. this morning to unload the aid and transport it to Gaza Strip.

“The relief convoy that will enter today from the Rafah crossing includes 20 trucks containing food supplies and medicines, and does not include fuel, and this is only a very small part of the humanitarian needs in Gaza, as two million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip without water, food, or electricity,” Spokeswoman of the Palestinian Red Crescent Nepal Farsakh explained.

She called on the international community to work as to bring fuel immediately into the sector, especially in the light of the urgent need in hospitals.

She pointed out that the Palestinian Red Crescent, in partnership with UNRWA and UNICEF, will deliver aid and provide it to the parties most need, foremost of which are the health sector and the hospitals, specifically Al-Shifa Hospital, which is one of the biggest hospitals in Gaza Strip.

“The number of trucks at the crossing is big, but the problem is with the number trucks that the occupation authorities allowed to enter, as they allowed only 20 trucks,”  Farsakh clarified, stressing the necessity of opening a permanent humanitarian crossing into Gaza Strip.

For her part, the Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Program Sidney McCain affirmed that the Gaza Strip needs are great and that 20 trucks are not enough, noting that the supply of food and other materials must continue.

Sources in the Gaza Strip warned that this limited convoy will not be able to mitigate the humanitarian catastrophe that the Strip is experiencing, so it is important to open a safe corridor that operates around the clock to provide the humanitarian and service needs that have become completely missing, and to allow the wounded to leave the strip to receive appropriate medical care in the light of the inability of the health system in Gaza to provide it currently.

Commenting on this development, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator Martin Griffiths said on Saturday on X platform that the first aid convoy that entered Gaza Strip, which consisted of 20 trucks loaded with relief shipments, “should not be the last.”

“I am confident that this aid delivery will be the beginning of sustainable efforts to provide basic supplies of food, water, medicine and fuel to the people in Gaza, in a safe and unconditional way and without obstacles,” he added.

Hamda Mustafa