5th Egyptian aid convoy heads to Gaza with 1,200 tons of supplies - Foreign Affairs

Al-Ahram Weekly

4 days ago

Egypt's fifth humanitarian aid convoy, comprising over 100 trucks with 1,200 tons of essential supplies, lined up on the Egyptian border on Thursday and is on its way to Gaza via the Karm Abu Salem crossing.
The supplies in the convoy include approximately 840 tons of flour and 450 tons of assorted food baskets, according to a statement by the Egyptian Red Crescent (ERC).
The fifth Egyptian convoy comes as Egypt intensifies efforts to send urgent humanitarian aid to Gaza as Israel continues a five-month deadly blockade on the strip that plunged the 2.3 million population into famine and starvation.
On Sunday, the ERC, the national coordination body for aid delivery to the Gaza Strip, launched Egypt's first aid convoy to Gaza, named 'Zad Al-Ezza: From Egypt to Gaza,' after five months of total blockade by Israel.
During the first three days of Egypt's humanitarian initiative, Egypt has delivered over 4,000 tons of humanitarian supplies to Gaza, despite bureaucratic and logistical obstacles on the Israeli side.
The statement highlighted that the ERC has been present at the border since the beginning of the crisis and that the Rafah crossing has never been closed from the Egyptian side.
The organization has remained on high alert, mobilizing 35,000 volunteers to ensure the delivery of aid.
"Since the onset of the crisis, more than 35,000 aid trucks carrying over 130,000 tons of humanitarian assistance have entered Gaza," the ERC reported.
These included food, water, medical supplies, medicines, shelter items, personal hygiene products, infant formula, diapers, ambulances, and fuel trucks.
Al-Azhar's Zakat and Charity House also announced the dispatch of its 11th humanitarian convoy as part of its international campaign 'Aid Gaza.'
The convoy carried thousands of tons of food and relief aid, as well as 1,000 fully equipped tents to provide shelter for Palestinian families who lost their homes due to Israel's genocidal war.
The organization stated that the aid includes essential medications, medical supplies, infant formula, healthcare products, clothing, blankets, canned food, and drinking water.
Simultaneously, 25 trucks from the UAE entered Gaza via the Rafah crossing, carrying equipment for potable water pipelines, intended to establish a new clean water line in southern Gaza.
Meanwhile, Jordan dispatched a 60-truck humanitarian aid convoy loaded with food to support the people of Gaza amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
According to Jordan's official news agency Petra, the convoy was organized in coordination with the Jordanian Armed Forces, the World Food Programme, and the World Central Kitchen.
In tandem, on Wednesday, four Egyptian military transport aircraft, carrying tons of food aid, conducted an airdrop on Wednesday over areas in the Gaza Strip that are difficult to access by land.
In exclusive statements to Al Arabiya and Al Hadath news channels on Wednesday, Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty described the US/Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) as 'a mechanism of death' for starving Palestinians who line up every day to receive food from its four designated distribution sites.
Since May, Israeli troops have killed an wounded hundreds of aid-seekers at so-called 'aid centres', triggering an international wave of condemnation of the GHF and Israel for its months-long deadly blockade on the strip.
FM Abdelatty also accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war, describing the famine in Gaza as "beyond imagination."
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