14 Trucks Carrying Humanitarian Aid Entered Gaza Through Rafah

Queues for vehicles carrying humanitarian aid in Rafah. (Twitter/@RowanAdel31)

JAKARTA - Around 14 trucks carrying humanitarian aid from the Egyptian Red Crescent and the UN entered the Gaza Strip, Palestine from Egypt via Rafah late Sunday evening local time.

Officials of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society in Gaza confirmed that the aid brought by the trucks had been received, and was being unloaded into vehicles that would take the goods to UNRWA storage facilities in Gaza, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, as quoted by CNN, October 23.

Confirmation also came from UNRWA Communications Director Juliette Touma, that the second aid convoy consisting of 14 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza via Rafah, as quoted by Reuters.

Security and humanitarian sources said a total of about 19 trucks were in the convoy on Sunday carrying medical supplies and food.

Meanwhile, head of public relations at the Palestinian Crossing Authority Wael Abu Omar said the trucks were carrying food and medicine for the Gaza Strip.

Previously, the first convoy consisting of 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid arrived in Gaza via Rafah on Saturday. The aid was immediately distributed on Sunday, but officials warned that the threat of humanitarian aid was still possible, given the dwindling supplies of food, water and fuel.

"I welcomed yesterday's convoy to Gaza, the first in two weeks of tight siege affecting 2 million people. However, this is far from enough. To be meaningful, Gaza needs uninterrupted and improved humanitarian supply lines," explained the Commissioner General United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini, quoted from the UNRWA website.

"UNRWA currently hosts more than half a million people out of nearly 1 million refugees in the Gaza Strip," he said.

It is known that Israel imposed a total blockade and launched air strikes on Gaza, in response to attacks on their territory by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The Rafah crossing, which is Gaza's main entry and exit point and vital for the distribution of aid, was not operational for several days, with Egyptian authorities saying they had never closed it operationally, but the Israeli attack made services at the crossing inoperable.