Egyptian officials told the Hezbollah linked Al Akhbar newspaper in Lebanon that Egypt will deliver som 200 trucks carrying humanitarian aid into Gaza daily, through the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and the southern part of the Strip, on secure routs and in coordination with the UN.
On Friday, Egypt and the U.S. agreed to send aid via the Kerem Shalom crossing until legal arrangements are made to open Rafah from the Palestinian side, the Egyptian presidency said after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi had a telephone conversation with U.S. President Joe Biden.
In the call Biden reportedly expressed his appreciation to el-Sisi for Egypt's mediation efforts, and the two leaders agreed that international efforts should be intensified to ensure the success of the negotiation process and achieve a breakthrough that would "end the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza."
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Trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing
(Photo: Mohamed Abd El Ghany / Reuters)
Egypt had rejected an Israeli proposal for the two countries to coordinate to re-open the Rafah crossing between Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip, and to manage its future operation, two Egyptian security sources said.
Shin Bet officials presented the plan on a visit to Cairo on Wednesday, amid rising tension between the two countries following Israel's military advance last week into Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by war have been sheltering.
The Israeli proposal included a mechanism for how to manage the crossing after an Israeli withdrawal, the security sources said. Egypt insists the crossing should be managed only by Palestinian authorities, they added.
An Israeli official who requested anonymity said the delegation travelled to Egypt "mainly to discuss matters around Rafah, given recent developments", but declined to elaborate. Egypt's foreign press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Aid deliveries for Gaza through Rafah began in late October. The flow of relief has often been slowed by Israeli inspections and military activity inside Gaza, aid officials say. Supplies have been stuck in al-Arish or on the road to Rafah, incurring transport and storage fees.
As of May 16, more than 2,000 U.N. and international NGO trucks were waiting to enter Gaza, including 1,574 carrying food supplies, according to a U.N. document seen by Reuters.
KSrelief, a Saudi-funded charity, has more than 350 trucks carrying items including food and medical supplies waiting, but has had to offload flour because of the risk of it rotting, the group's supervisor general Abdullah Al Rabeeah said.