The Rafah border crossing, which connects Egypt with the Gaza Strip, has opened for the second consecutive day to allow the entry of 17 trucks of humanitarian aid, local media have reported.
Six of them are tanker trucks loaded with fuel, according to an official at the Rafah border crossing and an AFP journalist.
The vehicles, whose fuel must power the electrical generators of two hospitals, crossed from Egypt, indicated the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and an Egyptian source.
After several days of intense negotiations, the passage was opened on Saturday for the first time since the outbreak of war, just two weeks after the terrorist attack by the Islamist group Hamas in southern Israel. There were 20 trucks with water, food and medicines crossing the most frequently cited border crossing in the world to help the Gazan population.
While the UN applauded the entry of humanitarian aid for the first time since the outbreak of the worst confrontation between Israel and Hamas, expressing its hope that these are only the first trucks in the framework of broader and continued assistance, in Gaza they warn that they are only “a drop of water in the sea” to the needs of the more than two million inhabitants.
70% of Gaza’s population is displaced and half of its homes are totally or partially destroyed by Israeli bombardments after 16 days of war between Israel and the Islamist group Hamas, the Gaza Government Press Office said today.
This involves the internal displacement of at least 1.4 million people among Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants.
Around half of them are sheltered in 217 shelters, and the rest have been sheltered in the homes of relatives, friends or acquaintances. added the spokesman for the Strip Executive, controlled by Hamas.