Shoukry's remarks came during a joint press conference with the Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares in Cairo.

The Rafah border crossing, he said, had been closed for only three days after Israel deliberately bombed it and that otherwise, the crossing has always remained open.

Shoukry also noted that the Egyptian government was able to repair the damages to the crossing in 24 hours to facilitate the movement of trucks.

Furthermore, he urged Israel to open all 6 different border crossings it controls to facilitate delivering aid swiftly to Gaza and stressed that, as an occupying power, Israel should take responsibility for the humanitarian crisis there.

Addressing his Spanish counterpart, Shoukry affirmed that the Palestinians in north Gaza are on the brink of starvation due to Israel's intransigence and the complex measures it implements that prevent sufficient quantities of aid from reaching the Palestinians in Gaza.

"There is a long queue of trucks carrying aid waiting at the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side, and we always strive to protect the truck drivers from being targeted, but the procedures imposed by the Israeli side for truck crossings are highly complicated and hinder the passage of more trucks to provide additional aid," he said.

In addition, Shoukry alluded to the floating port due to begin operating in two months.

"Are we going to let kids continue to die until the port is constructed after two months?" Shoukry exclaimed, stressing the urgent need for immediate action to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians, especially women, children, and the elderly in northern Gaza.

During his State of the Union address on 7 March, US President Joe Biden announced that the US would build a floating dock off Gaza to provide food and other desperately needed humanitarian aid to residents there.

Due to the unrelenting Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip, the EU, UAE, and the US announced opening a sea corridor to ship humanitarian aid from Cyprus to Gaza.

Aid ships using the corridor will sail from Cyprus through the Mediterranean to Gaza and will be meticulously inspected by Israel.

The EU did not say where the shipments would land or unload, or how the food would be distributed from the landing point.

An aid ship carrying 200 tons of relief aid, the first to test the new corridor, left Cyprus en route to Gaza on Tuesday.

UN and other humanitarian officials have, however, disputed the significance of the planned sea corridor, arguing that it was unlikely to compensate for the lack of overland access.

Shoukry also commended the crucial role played by the UNRWA in Gaza and affirmed Egypt's commitment to supporting its efforts.

He thanked the Spanish government for understanding, as part of the European Union, the challenges facing Egypt and the cardinal importance of the collaboration between Egypt and the EU.

On a different note, he shed light on the efforts made to increase the contribution of Spanish companies to Egypt's development and to boost investments and the volume of trade between the two countries.

He also said he discussed with Albares the plans to activate the existing business council between the two nations.