First of 20 aid trucks enter besieged Gaza from Egypt

RAFAH/CAIRO — The first of 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the war-torn and besieged Gaza Strip on Saturday through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, said AFP correspondents on both sides.

UN chief Antonio Guterres pleaded Saturday for a "humanitarian ceasefire" in the war between Israel and Hamas fighters that has devastated much of Gaza, demanding "action to end this godawful nightmare".

Addressing a Cairo summit as the conflict raged into its third week, Guterres said the Palestinian enclave of 2.4 million people was living through "a humanitarian catastrophe" with thousands dead and more than a million displaced.

“We meet in the heart of a region that is reeling in pain and one step from the precipice,” he told the meeting that included the leaders of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates as well as of Italy and Spain and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Guterres said “the grievances of the Palestinian people are legitimate and long” after “56 years of occupation.

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said he was “confident that this delivery will be the start of a sustainable effort to provide essential supplies... to the people of Gaza” and warned that “this first convoy must not be the last”.

The border crossing was closed again after the passage of the trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent which is responsible for delivering the aid, including food and medical supplies from various UN agencies.

It was the first such delivery since the war broke out more than two weeks ago between Israel and Hamas, which rules the Palestinian enclave of 2.4 million people.

Rafah is the only route into Gaza that is not controlled by Israel, which agreed to allow the aid in from Egypt following a request from its top ally the United States.

Israel has been bombing Gaza since October 7 and has also declared a total siege, cutting off most water as well as food, electricity, fuel and other supplies.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the aid passage as “an important first step that will alleviate the suffering of innocent people”.

 ‘A lifeline’ 

Cargo planes and trucks have been bringing humanitarian aid to the Egyptian side of Rafah for days, but so far none had been delivered to Gaza.

The UN World Food Programme said the convoy included three trucks carrying 60 metric tonnes of emergency food, including canned tuna, wheat flour, pasta, canned beans and canned tomato paste.

The UN World Health Organisation said it had sent supplies including trauma medicines for the stabilisation of injured patients, basic essential medicines and drugs for the treatment of chronic diseases.

US President Joe Biden had pushed for the trucks to be allowed to pass, during a solidarity visit to Israel on Wednesday.

He has said the first 20 trucks will be a test of a system for distributing aid, with UN agencies set to distribute it on the Gaza side of the border.