The long-awaited humanitarian aid for the Palestinians trapped in the Gaza Strip might start entering on Friday.
On Thursday, the Israeli army continued to pound the Gaza Strip, on the thirteenth day of the war between Israel and Hamas, which launched an unprecedented attack on the Jewish state on October 7.
More than 3,700 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the relentless bombardment carried out by the Israeli army in retaliation, according to the latest figures from local authorities. The rest of the population remains trapped by the bombardments, with no possibility of fleeing except to the south of the enclave, due to the closure of all land crossings.
Egypt’s Al-Qahera News reported on Thursday, however, that the Rafah crossing, between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, the only one not controlled by Israel, will open on Friday. The opening of this crossing should enable international organizations, notably the United Nations, to deliver aid to the Gazan population.
In Cairo on Thursday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pleaded for “rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access” to Gaza, calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”
U.S. President Joe Biden, on a visit to Israel on Wednesday, had claimed to have secured Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi’s agreement to “allow up to 20 trucks to cross”, a number which the WHO considers insufficient.
Humanitarian aid convoys bound for this cramped strip of land, home to 2.4 million Palestinians, have been blocked for days at the Rafah crossing, the only one not controlled by Israel.
Entire neighborhoods have been razed to the ground, leaving them without water, food, or electricity, and more than a million people have been displaced by the siege imposed by Israel on October 9 on Gaza, already under a land, sea, and air blockade since Hamas took power there in 2007.
At the Rafah terminal between Egypt and Gaza, Egyptians repaired the damage caused by the Israeli bombardment on Thursday in preparation for the passage of aid trucks, according to witnesses. And dozens of people gathered in the hope of reopening the crossing.
The Egyptian President and King Abdullah II of Jordan called for an ‘immediate end’ to the conflict in the Gaza Strip while accusing Israel of inflicting ‘collective punishment’ on the territory, aimed at ‘starving’ Palestinians and ‘forcing them to move,’ according to reports from Amman.
These two countries, which have frequently acted as mediators between Israelis and Palestinians, have been warning for several days against the ‘forced displacement’ of Palestinians onto their soil.
Katrine Dige Houmøller
