By Abdul Salam Fayez
CAIRO (AA) – Aid trucks have begun entering the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing, which connects the Strip and Israel, for the first time since the Israeli military launched an offensive on Rafah on May 6, Egyptian media reported on Sunday.
Al Qahera news channel aired footage showing the moment humanitarian aid trucks, including four fuel trucks, crossed Kerem Shalom into Gaza.
Aid trucks left the Egyptian side from the Rafah crossing and traveled to the Kerem Shalom crossing, local Palestinian sources told Anadolu.
The sources said the aid was inspected by Israeli soldiers at the Kerem Shalom crossing before being sent to Palestinians, who were looking for much-needed humanitarian assistance amid intensified Israeli bombardment and strict food restrictions, which the international community views as Tel Aviv state policy attempting to starve people to death.
The trucks will be handed over to the US, then travel along the Philadelphi axis on the Palestinian-Egyptian border to the Tel al-Sultan area west of Rafah, from where they will enter the Strip via the coastal Al-Rashid Street, they explained.
They added that approximately 200 trucks are expected to enter Gaza on Sunday, each carrying 15 to 20 tons of aid, with four of these trucks carrying fuel.
On Friday, during a phone call with US President Joe Biden, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi agreed to temporarily deliver aid to the UN at the Kerem Shalom crossing.
This arrangement will be in effect until a legal mechanism is established to reopen the Rafah crossing on the Palestinian side of southern Gaza.
On May 7, Israel took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, a day after Tel Aviv announced the start of a military offensive in the city.
In response, Cairo refused to coordinate with Tel Aviv regarding the crossing and accused it of causing a humanitarian disaster in the Strip.
Israel continues its brutal offensive on Gaza despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.
Over 35,900 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, the vast majority being women and children, and over 80,400 others injured since October following an attack by Hamas.
More than seven months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of “genocide” at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where more than a million displaced Palestinians had sought refuge.
* Writing by Ikram Kouachi