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Al-Ahram Weekly
2 days ago
- General
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Fourth Egyptian aid convoy reaches Karm Abu Salem as Israel stalls entry into Gaza - Foreign Affairs
Egypt's fourth humanitarian aid convoy to Gaza reached the Karm Abu Salem crossing early Wednesday, after crossing from Rafah amid ongoing Israeli delays that have slowed the entry of life-saving supplies. Dozens of trucks carrying food, medical, and relief materials were seen queuing at the border, awaiting clearance to deliver urgently needed aid to the besieged southern Gaza Strip. According to Al-Qahera News, Egypt has delivered over 4,000 tonnes of humanitarian supplies to Gaza over the past three days, despite bureaucratic and logistical obstacles on the Israeli side. The breakdown includes approximately 1,855 tonnes of food baskets, 1,640 tonnes of flour, 400 tonnes of personal care items, and 150 tonnes of medical aid. Egyptian Red Crescent (ERC) officials reported that Israeli authorities delayed the entry of the fourth convoy, citing concerns that some truckloads were 'unbalanced.' Several trucks were forced to return to the Egyptian side to adjust cargo or reattempt entry the following day. The ERC, which is coordinating national humanitarian relief efforts for Gaza, launched its first convoy, named Zad El-Ezza: From Egypt to Gaza, on Sunday. That initial shipment included more than 100 trucks carrying 1,200 tonnes of supplies, primarily flour and food parcels. On Monday, the second convoy crossed into Gaza carrying around 1,500 tonnes of aid, followed by the third convoy on Tuesday with roughly 1,300 tonnes. Combined, the three convoys delivered critical food and medical support, including 440 tonnes of food baskets, 450 tonnes of flour, 150 tonnes of medications, and 200 tonnes of hygiene items. Since the beginning of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, Egypt says it has facilitated the entry of more than 35,000 aid trucks, delivering over 500,000 tonnes of humanitarian relief. However, international organizations have repeatedly warned that Israel's blockade and restrictions on aid access continue to worsen conditions on the ground, starving the Strip's 2.4 million population to death. The ERC, operating with a volunteer base of 35,000 across its logistics hubs, remains a central actor in Egypt's broader response to the humanitarian crisis in the enclave. Aid groups have emphasized the urgency of sustained access and called for the immediate removal of obstructions to humanitarian delivery. Starvation crisis and aid access The delivery of Egyptian aid comes amid mounting international alarm over Gaza's deepening famine, exacerbated by Israel's ongoing blockade and bombardment. For over four months, humanitarian agencies and food security experts have warned that famine is imminent. The United Nations (UN) estimates that 600 to 800 aid trucks are needed daily to sustain life in the territory, numbers that remain far out of reach. Since October 2023, Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has killed over 60,000 Palestinians—primarily women and children—and injured over 144,000 others, with many still buried under rubble. But hunger has emerged as a second front of devastation. Images of severely emaciated children, many of whom have been killed by the manufactured famine engineered by Israel, have triggered growing backlash from Tel Aviv's allies, including the US, and sparked calls for an immediate ceasefire and the immediate and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid. The context of the alert is stark: one in three people is now going without food for days at a time, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said this week. Hospitals, already decimated by bombing and supply shortages, have treated more than 20,000 children for acute malnutrition since April. At least 16 children under five have died from hunger-related causes in the last two weeks. In recent days, at least five infants died from hunger-related causes. More than 900,000 children in Gaza are now suffering from hunger, and 70,000 have entered the stage of clinical malnutrition, putting them at imminent risk of death. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
Al-Ahram Weekly
5 days ago
- General
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Aid trucks from Egypt enter Gaza via Karm Abu Salem crossing - Foreign Affairs
Dozens of Egyptian aid trucks began entering the Gaza Strip on Sunday through the Karm Abu Salem crossing, carrying tonnes of essential humanitarian supplies, Al-Qahera News reported. The convoy set out earlier in the day from the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, "loaded with food, flour, and reconstruction materials," according to Al-Qahera News. Additionally, the Egyptian Red Crescent (ERC) launched an aid convoy to Gaza on Sunday, named Zad Al-Ezza: From Egypt to Gaza, consisting of over 100 trucks carrying 1,200 tonnes of food supplies, including approximately 840 tonnes of flour and 450 tonnes of food baskets. Trucks cannot enter Gaza directly from the Egyptian side of Rafah; instead, convoys are rerouted a few kilometres to the nearby Karm Abu Salem crossing—operated by Israel—where they undergo inspection before being allowed into southern Gaza. The delivery is part of Egypt's ongoing efforts to ease the deepening humanitarian crisis in the besieged Strip by providing life-saving aid. On Saturday, Israel announced a limited 'tactical pause' in parts of Gaza to facilitate the delivery of aid, designating secure corridors for convoys. The Israeli military said the daily pause—from 10:00am to 8:00pm—applies only to specific areas, including Al-Mawasi, Deir al-Balah, and parts of Gaza City where it claimed its forces are not currently operating. The Israeli military announced on Saturday via Telegram that it had conducted an airdrop of humanitarian aid 'as part of ongoing efforts to facilitate entry of supplies.' The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, however, warned that such measures fall far short of addressing the crisis. 'Airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians,' Lazzarini wrote on X. The limited flow of additional aid follows global outrage over Israel's five-month-long blockade and the 'flour massacres' committed by occupation forces at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid distribution centres—US-registered and Israeli-backed—where over 1,000 Palestinian aid-seekers have been killed since May. Israel's deliberate starvation of Gaza's 2.4 million residents has been widely condemned as a form of collective punishment and a war crime. According to the United Nations (UN), 600 to 800 trucks of humanitarian aid are needed daily to sustain the population, an estimate far from being met under current restrictions. Aid organizations continue to warn of a dramatic surge in malnutrition among children as the blockade continues unabated. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
DW
5 days ago
- Health
- DW
Middle East: Aid trucks begin entering Gaza from Egypt – DW – 07/27/2025
The first aid trucks have arrived in the Palestinian territory to help ease a worsening humanitarian crisis. Israel has announced a pause in the fighting in some areas to help food distribution. DW has the latest. Aid trucks have begun entering Gaza from Egypt, Egyptian state-linked media reported, hours after Israel bowed to mounting pressure to ease the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory. "Egyptian aid trucks begin to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing," Al-Qahera News posted on X, alongside footage of convoys moving in the border area. Israel said Saturday it had begun airdrops of aid after months of accusations that it was restricting aid supplies to the war-devastated territory. On Sunday, the Israeli military said "humanitarian corridors" would allow United Nations aid trucks to deliver food and other vital supplies to Gaza residents. The military also promised "humanitarian pauses" in the fighting in densely populated areas. Aid organizations warned last week of mass hunger among Gaza's population, despite Israeli denials that it was restricting food deliveries. Dozens of Palestinians have died of malnutrition in the past few weeks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. Israel cut off all supplies to Gaza in March, before resuming them in May with new restrictions. Israel's military said Sunday it would begin a "tactical pause" in fighting in three areas of Gaza to help aid agencies deliver food and other supplies. The decision follows huge international pressure on Israel to ease the humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave. Experts have warned of a famine in Gaza due to Israel's curbs on aid supplies. Several hundred Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks while trying to reach food distribution sites. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The pause will take place daily in Al-Mawasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City, from 10 a.m. local time (0700 GMT/UTC) to 8 p.m. (1700 GMT/UTC) until further notice, the military said. Israel also said its military was not active in those areas, but there had been fighting and strikes in recent weeks. The statement added that Israel would designate secure routes to help aid agencies make vital deliveries to people across Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had airdropped humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. "The IDF recently carried out an airdrop of humanitarian aid as part of the ongoing efforts to allow and facilitate the entry of aid into the Gaza Strip," the military posted on Telegram in the early hours of Sunday morning. The drop included seven crates of aid containing flour, sugar and canned food, it added. Footage provided by the IDF showed white parachutes opening from the crates as they were dropped from a plane into the darkness over Gaza. In a statement posted on X late Saturday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced that it would "apply a 'humanitarian pause' in civilian centers and in humanitarian corridors to enable the distribution of aid supply" in Gaza. The Foreign Ministry again blamed the United Nations for failing to distribute assistance in the Strip. It added that "Israel rejects the false accusations of 'starvation' propaganda initiated by Hamas." UN officials have rejected responsibility for the failure to deliver aid to Palestinians in Gaza, saying aid workers have not received the permissions necessary to provide food, water and other humanitarian aid safely. The pro-Palestinian activist group Freedom Flotilla said Saturday that Israeli forces had intercepted its latest Gaza-bound aid boat, theHandala. "The Israeli army is here. We are throwing our phones into the sea. See you soon. Stop the genocide," Emma Fourreau, a French member of the European Parliament and part of the Handala crew, posted on X. A livestream broadcast by the group showed the activists sitting on deck with their hands up as Israeli soldiers boarded the boat. The Handala had already sailed closer to Gaza than the group's previous vessel, the Madleen, which was intercepted by Israeli forces last month. At the start of the ongoing war, Israel tightened it maritime blockade of the Palestinian territory, which went into place when Hamas took control of Gaza in Israeli military announced that airdrops of aid to Gaza would resume and that humanitarian corridors would be established for United Nations convoys. "The airdrops will include seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar, and canned food to be provided by international organizations," it said in a statement. The military's statement did not specify when the humanitarian corridors would open or where. It said that the military "emphasizes that combat operations have not ceased" in Gaza against Hamas. The statement also added that there is "no starvation" in the territory. International health and aid organizations have repeatedly raised concerns about the dire conditions and severe shortage of essential supplies in Gaza during the 21-month conflict. Experts have also criticized airdrops of aid as vastly insufficient for the some 2 million Palestinians in Gaza in desperate need of food, water, medicine and other supplies. Before the start of the war in Gaza, 500 truckloads of goods crossed into the Palestinian territory each day, according to the United Nations The Emirati foreign minister said on Saturday that the United Arab Emirates will resume airdrops to deliver aid to Gaza at once. "The humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached a critical and unprecedented level," Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan posted on X. "We will ensure essential aid reaches those most in need, whether through land, air or sea. Airdrops are resuming once more, immediately." His remarks follow Israel's announcement on Friday that it would allow airdrops of aid by foreign countries into Gaza to alleviate starvation in the Palestinian territory. The relatives of 50 hostages still in Gaza are growing more frustrated. Some are losing faith that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will ever strike a deal to bring them home. DW's Tania Krämer met Yehuda Cohen in front of the Likud party's Tel Aviv headquarters at a sit-in organized by families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. His son, Nimrod, has been held captive for 22 months. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The United Kingdom is working with Middle Eastern allies including Jordan on plans to airdrop aid into the Gaza Strip and evacuate children in need of medical care, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office said on Saturday. "The prime minister set out how the UK will be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance," read a statement after Starmer held a three-way phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. During the conversation, the three leaders agreed that the humanitarian situation in Gaza was "appalling" and that it would be "vital to ensure robust plans are in place to turn an urgently needed ceasefire into lasting peace," according to the Downing Street readout. "They discussed their intention to work closely together on a plan ... which would pave the way to a long-term solution and security in the region," it continued. "They agreed that once this plan was worked up, they would seek to bring in other key partners, including in the region, to advance it." In Berlin, Chancellor Merz's office spoke of "large agreement" on the call – despite Germany so far refusing to criticize Israel to the extent that the UK and France have done, with the latter even set to officially recognize Palestinian statehood later this year. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video "We will be coordinating very closely in the coming days to take the next steps," said Merz. The phone call came a day after United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres slammed the international community for turning a blind eye to widespread starvation in the Gaza Strip, calling it a "moral crisis that challenges the global conscience." For the first time in months, Israel said it is allowing airdrops, requested by neighboring Jordan. An official in Amman said the airdrops will mainly be food and milk formula. But the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, warned on social media that airdrops are "expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians" and won't reverse the increasing starvation or prevent aid diversion. "A man-made hunger can only be addressed by political will," he said, demanding: "Lift the siege, open the gates and guarantee safe movements and dignified access to people in need." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Some 40 people died while trying to access humanitarian aid, including 16 who were shot by Israeli forces, in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, according to local Palestinian authorities and medics. Doctors at the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said that 16 people were killed and another 300 injured near the northern Zikim border crossing waiting for trucks carrying aid. One witness told the AFP news agency that Israeli troops opened fire "while the people were waiting to approach the distribution point." The Israeli military told AFP that its troops fired "warning shots to distance the crowd" after identifying an unspecified "immediate threat." Elsewhere, Gaza's Hamas-run civil defense agency said nine people were killed in three separate Israeli air strikes in Gaza City, eleven in four separate strikes near the southern city of Khan Yunis and two in a drone strike in Nuseirat refugee camp. The Palestinian militant group Hamas expressed surprise on Saturday at suggestions from US President Donald Trump that the group "didn't really want" a ceasefire and hostage release deal for Gaza. Trump made the allegation on Friday after Israel and the United States walked out of indirect negotiations with Hamas in Qatar that had lasted nearly three weeks. "Trump's remarks are particularly surprising, especially as they come at a time when progress had been made on some of the negotiation files," said a spokesman for the Islamist group which launched the deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked the current conflict. "So far, we have not been informed of any issues regarding the files under discussion in the indirect ceasefire negotiations", he added. Though not part of the Hamas negotiating team, Hamas politburo member Izzat al-Rishq insisted the group had shown "flexibility" in the talks, but Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff accused Hamas of not "acting in good faith." Hello and welcome to DW's coverage of developments in Gaza, Israel and the wider Middle East on Saturday, July 26. In a three-way conversation with his French and German counterparts, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the United Kingdom was working with regional partners such as Jordan on a plan to airdrop aid into the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, medics and Hamas officials said that dozens more Palestinians had been killed by Israeli fire, some while waiting for humanitarian aid.
Roya News
5 days ago
- Politics
- Roya News
Egyptian aid trucks being entering Gaza: state-linked media
Egyptian state-linked media on Sunday reported that aid trucks had begun entering the Gaza Strip as 'Israel' announced a "tactical pause" in parts of the devastated territory to allow deliveries. "Egyptian aid trucks begin to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing," Al-Qahera News posted on X, alongside footage of aid convoys moving in the border area.
Al-Ahram Weekly
6 days ago
- Health
- Al-Ahram Weekly
117 aid trucks enter Gaza: Al-Qahera News - War on Gaza
A convoy of 117 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip late Friday through the Zikim crossing in the north and the Karm Abu Salem crossing in the south, according to Al-Qahera News. This marked the third aid delivery since Wednesday, amid growing international condemnation of Israel's blockade and its mass starvation policy targeting Gaza's population of 2.3 million, which rights groups describe as a 'man-made famine.' Israel's deliberate starvation of civilians has been widely denounced as a tactic of collective punishment and a war crime. Images of the dead and severely emaciated—many of them children—have sparked mounting global pressure on Israel over the worsening humanitarian catastrophe. The United Nations (UN) has previously estimated that 600 to 800 aid trucks are needed daily to sustain life in Gaza. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) had earlier warned that malnutrition among children under five had doubled between March and June due to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. Since May, Israeli occupation forces have killed nearly 1,000 Palestinians seeking flour at US- and Israeli-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's (GHF) designated 'humanitarian aid centres' across the Strip. Humanitarian organizations continue to raise the alarm over the soaring rates of malnutrition among children in Gaza, as the blockade remains firmly in place. Famine deepens, ceasefire talks collapse On Saturday, an infant, Hud Arafat, died Saturday morning due to severe malnutrition and the lack of baby formula, according to the Palestinian WAFA news agency. His death brings the number of children who have died from starvation and malnutrition in the past 24 hours to three, raising the total death toll from hunger-related causes in Gaza to 124. Medical sources reported that 84 children were among the victims of the mass-starvation policy imposed by Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip. This follows the deaths of two other infants from starvation and malnutrition announced on Friday. Over 900,000 children are currently suffering from hunger, 70,000 of whom have entered the stage of clinical malnutrition, placing them at imminent risk of death. Meanwhile, hopes for a ceasefire faded this week as the United States and Israel abruptly pulled out of the latest round of negotiations with Hamas, despite the group's stated willingness to continue talks. The move drew sharp criticism from international aid groups and regional governments, who have urged renewed diplomatic pressure to halt the war and end the starvation campaign. Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has claimed the lives of nearly 57,000 Palestinians, primarily women and children, since its outbreak in October 2023. At least 143,965 others have been injured, with the toll expected to rise as many victims remain trapped under rubble or in areas inaccessible to rescue teams Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
