Humanitarian aid trucks started entering the besieged Gaza Strip from the Rafah crossing in Egypt, reported Egyptian media.
The relief aid convoy included 20 trucks that carry medicine, medical supplies, and a limited amount of food supplies, Hamas's media office said.
Seven trucks have begun arriving inside Gaza Saturday afternoon, reported the World Health Organization (WHO).
Supplies included trauma medicines and supplies for 1200 people and 235 portable trauma bags for on-the-spot stabilization of injured patients, the WHO said as it confirmed working with Egyptian and Palestinian Red Crescent Societies to ensure safe passage of supplies.
Egyptian state TV showed trucks that have been waiting for days entering the border crossing area from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Egyptian media earlier said preparations were underway to open the Rafah crossing to allow the passage of trucks carrying humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.
Televised footage showed trucks moving towards the crossing in what appeared to be preparation to let trucks carrying humanitarian aid enter Gaza from Egypt.
Egyptian state TV showed trucks that have been waiting for days entering the border crossing area from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
An AFP journalist on the Palestinian side of the crossing saw 36 empty trailers entering into the terminal and heading towards the Egyptian side, where they were to be loaded with the incoming aid.
Hamas said that expected truckloads of aid ‘will not change the catastrophic medical conditions in Gaza’.
The US Embassy in Israel said the Gaza-Egypt border may open on Saturday, suggesting that such a move would enable foreigners to leave the besieged Palestinian enclave.
In a social media post, the embassy said it had “received info” that the Rafah crossing would open at 10 a.m.
“We do not know how long it will remain open for foreign citizens to depart Gaza,” it added.
Israel blockaded the territory and launched waves of punishing airstrikes following the Oct. 7 rampage by Hamas militants on towns in southern Israel.
Many in Gaza, reduced to eating one meal a day and without enough water to drink, are waiting desperately for the aid. Hospital workers were also in urgent need of medical supplies and fuel for their generators as they treat huge numbers of people wounded in the bombings.
Hundreds of foreign passport holders also waited to cross from Gaza to Egypt to escape the conflict.
Israel and Palestinian militants traded fire on Saturday after Hamas released an American woman and her teenage daughter, the first of some 200 captives to be freed after the militant group’s Oct. 7 rampage into Israel.
Israel has sealed off the territory for two weeks, forcing Palestinians to ration food and to drink filthy water from wells. Hospitals say they are running low on medicine and fuel for emergency generators amid a territory-wide blackout.
A line of empty flatbed trucks could be seen moving on the Gaza side, perhaps in preparation for bringing in the desperately needed aid.
The release came amid growing expectations of a ground offensive that Israel says is aimed at rooting out the militant group, which has ruled Gaza for 16 years. Israel said Friday it does not plan to take long-term control over the tiny territory, home to some 2.3 million Palestinians.Egyptian media on Saturday(Today) said preparations were underway to open the Rafah crossing to allow the passage of trucks carrying humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza.US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said lthat the crossing would be open last Monday. But that didn’t happen. Over the last few days the crossing has also been bombed by Israelis.
If the crossing does open, it would suggest a ground invasion by Israel, is not going to happen imminently. But people are concerned that if aid is allowed in, then that means Israelis can go in and start the ground invasion in the coming days.
US embassy in Jerusalem says it has received information that the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will open at 10am local time (07:00am GMT).
“The relief aid convoy that is supposed to enter today includes 20 trucks that carry medicine, medical supplies, and a limited amount of food supplies [canned goods],” a statement from Hamas’s media office has said.
Televised footage showed trucks moving towards the the crossing in what appeared to be preparation to let trucks carrying humanitarian aid enter Gaza from Egypt.
The US Embassy in Israel said the Gaza-Egypt border may open on Saturday, suggesting that such a move would enable foreigners to leave the besieged Palestinian enclave.In a social media post, the embassy said it had “received info” that the Rafah crossing would open at 10 a.m. (0700GMT).
“We do not know how long it will remain open for foreign citizens to depart Gaza,” it added.
The executive director of the World Food Programme has called for “reliable and sustained access” to be granted to humanitarian actors on the ground, amid talks of a potential reopening of Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt at 10am local time (07:00 GMT).
“This conflict is having a horrific impact on civilians, food will run out within a matter of days and water, medicines and other supplies are dangerously low,” Cindy McCain said in a video posted on X.
“Our trucks are loaded and waiting with food for half a million people, but we cannot access Gaza right now,” she said. “Humanitarians need to be able to get the aid in and they must be able to distribute it.”
McCain said failure to do so meant the “world will watch while the people of Gaza starve.”
