AL-ARISH, Egypt: Hundreds of trucks loaded with food and water have been stranded on a scorching Egyptian road, some for nearly two months, awaiting permission to deliver the much needed humanitarian supplies to war-torn Gaza.
About 50 kilometers from the Gaza border, trucks carrying flour, water and other aid line a dusty road in both directions. The drivers say they have been waiting for several weeks in the searing Egyptian summer heat.
The standstill is exacerbating Gaza’s dire humanitarian crisis after nine months of war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas. Aid groups warn there is a high risk of famine across the besieged coastal territory.
The truck drivers, parked on the outskirts of the Egyptian city of Al-Arish in the Sinai Peninsula, say they have been unable to deliver humanitarian supplies ever since Israel expanded its offensive on the Gaza-Egypt border in May.
Some food has had to be discarded, they said.
“I swear to God, before this load, we came here and stood for more than 50 days and eventually the load was returned because it had expired,” said truck driver Elsayed El-Nabawi.
“We had to turn around and return it. We loaded another batch, and here we are standing again and only God knows if this load will make it before it expires or what will happen to it.”
The Israeli military started its assault on the southern Gazan city of Rafah in May. The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, a lifeline to the outside world for Gazans, allowing the delivery of aid and the evacuation of patients, has been shut since then.
Talks involving Egypt, the United States and Israel have failed to reopen Rafah, where Egypt wants a Palestinian presence restored on the Gazan side of the border. Israeli flags now fly over Gazan buildings destroyed along the border with Egypt.
“We’ve been stranded here for over a month waiting to deliver this load. We’ve waiting for our turn but nothing yet” said Ahmed Kamel, another of the truck drivers, who sit by their vehicles drinking tea and smoking cigarettes.
“We don’t know our fate — when we will be able to enter? Today? Tomorrow? The day after tomorrow? Only God knows. Will the stuff we’re carrying hold up or most of it will go bad?”
Aid and commercial supplies have still entered Gaza through other land border crossings, through air drops and by sea, but aid groups and Western diplomats say the supplies are far below needs. The drivers say they are waiting for Israeli permission.
‘DIFFICULTIES’
Distribution of aid in Gaza was difficult even before Israel’s assault on Rafah. Israel has enforced restrictions on goods entering the enclave, saying it wants to prevent them reaching Hamas. Some aid convoys have also been hit in Israeli military strikes, resulting in deaths of aid workers.
Palestinian gangs inside Gaza have also reportedly sought to steal aid and commercial supplies entering the territory of some 2.3 million Palestinians. Desperate Palestinians have also overwhelmed trucks, taking much needed humanitarian supplies.
A senior official at the Israeli foreign ministry said the backlog of aid in Egypt was due to humanitarian aid that has piled up on the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom crossing point, creating a backlog of around 1,200 truckloads worth of aid.
The official said that while Israel continued to facilitate the entry of supplies into Gaza, the distribution network inside Gaza run by international groups had been “disrupted” in recent months, blaming local Palestinian criminal gangs and Hamas.
The Israeli military, which oversees coordination of aid in Gaza, has said that it is letting in enough food in from Israel and Egypt for the entire population. It has also acknowledged that aid agencies face “difficulties” in transporting food once it has entered through crossing points, including from Israel.
Stranded aid trucks in Egypt deepen Gaza’s humanitarian crisis
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Stranded aid trucks in Egypt deepen Gaza’s humanitarian crisis
- Aid groups warn there is a high risk of famine across the besieged coastal territory
- Talks involving Egypt, the United States and Israel have failed to reopen Rafah
‘Unprecedented catastrophe’ unfolding in Gaza despite ceasefire, Palestinian UN envoy says
- Riyad Mansour tells Security Council at least 500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during truce, amid Israel’s continuing obstruction of humanitarian aid efforts
- If world abandons right to self-determination, ban on taking territory by force, and respect for international law in Palestine, it endangers these principles worldwide, he warns
NEW YORK CITY: Palestine’s ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said on Wednesday that the core principles upon which the UN was founded are under grave threat in the occupied Palestinian territories.
He said that although thousands of lives had been saved by the ceasefire agreement in October, at least 500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since then amid Israel’s continuing obstruction of humanitarian aid efforts, which is worsening what he described as the unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe in the territory.
Speaking at a packed, high-level meeting of the UN Security Council, Mansour warned that if the right to self-determination, the prohibition of the acquisition of territory by force, and respect for international law are abandoned in relation to events in Palestine, it would endanger those principles worldwide.
“Asserting them there (in Palestinian territories) is upholding them everywhere; abandoning them there is jeopardizing them everywhere,” he told council members.
He welcomed the ceasefire deal agreed last year under a US-backed plan, praising the role of President Donald Trump’s administration and other international mediators, and said Palestinians have supported the truce in good faith despite repeated breaches by Israel.
While he acknowledged that thousands of lives had been saved through the resumption of humanitarian aid, and welcomed the release of all Israeli hostages and prisoners, Mansour questioned what justice would mean for Palestinian families whose relatives had been killed or remain missing under rubble, or who had suffered displacement, trauma and long-term injuries.
“The suffering of Palestinian civilians — men, women and children — must end with equal urgency,” he said, as he called for the full implementation of ceasefire obligations, an immediate end to the killing, and unrestricted humanitarian access across Gaza.
He condemned the punitive targeting of humanitarian organizations by Israel, including nongovernmental organizations and the UN’s own Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, citing in particular the seizure and destruction of their facilities and efforts to ban or expel aid groups from Palestinian territory.
Britain’s deputy ambassador to the UN, James Kariuki, echoed the concerns about humanitarian access. He condemned what he described as Israel’s “egregious attacks” against UNRWA facilities in East Jerusalem, and its restrictions on the work of international nongovernmental organizations.
“These are the backbone of the humanitarian response, providing $1 billion of funding annually, and without them Palestinians will face yet more suffering,” he said, as he urged Israeli authorities to honor their humanitarian commitments under the Trump administration’s peace plan, and the wider principles of international law.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza remains catastrophic, Kariuki said, with at least nine infants having died of hypothermia so far this winter, including a 3-month-old baby last week.
“This is completely unconscionable, especially when lifesaving shelter and medical supplies remain at the border, blocked by Israeli authorities,” he added.
The decision by Israel to partially open the Rafah border crossing was insufficient; all crossings must be fully opened to allow aid to enter Gaza at scale, he said.
He also called for swift implementation of phase two of the peace plan, as set out in Security Council Resolution 2803, including the withdrawal of Israeli forces, the disarming of Hamas, deployment of an international stabilization force, and a clear timeline for the transfer of governance in Gaza to a reformed Palestinian Authority. Hamas must have no role in the future running of the territory, he added.
Mansour accused Israeli authorities of defying an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice on its humanitarian obligations and violations of UN conventions, and said Israel had no sovereign rights in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem.
Regarding the situation in the West Bank, Mansour warned of escalating Israeli military operations, settler violence and settlement expansions, including the E1 settlement project that threatens to split the West Bank. About 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced in the territory over the past two years, he added, the highest number since 1967.
Despite all this, Palestinians still see an opportunity for peace, Mansour said. He reiterated calls for a two-state solution, and for international efforts to move forward from the ceasefire deal to the end of the occupation and lasting peace under international law.
Gaza must remain an integral part of Palestinian territory and be reunified with the West Bank under the governance of the Palestinian Authority, he said, and he rejected any plan to divide or exert permanent external control over the enclave.
“Gaza belongs to the Palestinian people — nobody else,” Mansour said.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, told the council his country had achieved its first war aim by securing the return of all Israeli hostages, and was now focused on its second objective: the full disarmament of Hamas.
Progress toward the rebuilding of Gaza and implementation of the next phase of the ceasefire agreement depends on dismantling the military infrastructure of Hamas, including its weapons, command structures and tunnels, he said. No civilian future was possible while the group was still armed, he added.
Hamas continues to delay its disarmament, Danon said, and he warned of what he described as a broader regional threat posed by Iran.
He accused the regime in Tehran of funding and arming militant groups across the Middle East and repressing its own population. Israel believes the Iranian leadership must be confronted and never be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons, he added.
