First aid to the Gaza Strip will be sent through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt
Geneva:
The delivery of first aid to the besieged Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing with Egypt should take place “in the next day or so”, the United Nations said on Friday.
“We are in deep and advanced negotiations with all relevant parties to ensure that a relief operation in Gaza starts as soon as possible… an initial delivery will begin in about a day,” said UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths . , quoted by his spokesperson Jens Laerke in Geneva.
Laerke told reporters: “I obviously don’t have an exact time for when these movements will take place, hoping that they can start as soon as possible, in a way that is safe and hopefully sustainable.
“We need to have a mechanism by which this can be driven to the south of Gaza. Nevertheless, we call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”
Much-needed international aid piled up on Friday in Egypt near Gaza, where Palestinians were in dire need of food and water after brutal bombardments by Israel, which is still reeling from the bloodiest attack in its history.
The UN says more than a million of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents are displaced and the humanitarian situation is worsening by the day.
Egypt’s state broadcaster Al Qahera News had said the Rafah border crossing – the only route into Gaza – would open on Friday, but Cairo later said it needed more time to repair the roads.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after the Islamist group launched a massive attack from the Gaza Strip on October 7, killing at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials.
In response, Israeli warplanes have leveled entire city blocks in Gaza in preparation for a ground invasion that is said to take place soon. More than 3,785 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the bombings, according to the latest figures from the Hamas-led Health Ministry.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
