Photo: Egyptian Red Crescent official facebook page
The convoy carried a comprehensive package of urgent aid, comprising more than 500 tons of relief supplies, around 200 tons of personal care items, and petroleum products to support essential services.
In response to severe weather conditions, the ERC also sent additional winter assistance, including more than 1,300 blankets, over 25,000 winter clothing items, and 300+ tents to shelter displaced families.
Egypt’s humanitarian response to the Gaza Strip has evolved into the largest and most sustained relief operation in modern history, extending for more than 760 consecutive days since the outbreak of Israel’s war in October 2023.
Acting through the ERC as its national coordination mechanism, Egypt has delivered over 780,000 tons of humanitarian assistance into Gaza via the Rafah crossing and Karm Abu Salem crossing, despite severe security constraints and an ongoing Israeli blockade.
The operation has been supported by a nationwide logistics network and a volunteer force of over 35,000 male and female members. Moreover, Egypt has coordinated aid flows with 59 countries, receiving 943 humanitarian relief flights and 617 maritime shipments.
Assistance delivered has included food supplies, flour, fresh bread, infant formula, tents, medicines, medical equipment, fuel, and winter relief items, alongside the facilitation of 214 ambulances, the deployment of four field hospitals, and the provision of around 91,000 tons of fuel to sustain hospitals and essential services inside the Strip.
Since 27 July, Egypt has intensified ground operations through the “Zad Al-Izza…” initiative, dispatching successive convoys that have carried more than 234,000 tons of aid.
On Friday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Israel to reverse its decision to bar humanitarian agencies from operating in Gaza, warning the move would worsen an already dire crisis.
In a statement, his spokesman said Guterres was “deeply concerned,” stressing that international NGOs are essential to life-saving aid and that suspending their work risks eroding fragile gains made during the ceasefire.
Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations after they declined to submit lists of Palestinian staff to authorities.
The ban includes Doctors Without Borders, which employs about 1,200 staff in the Palestinian territories, most of them in Gaza. Affected NGOs have been ordered to halt operations by 1 March.
Several organizations said the requirements violate international humanitarian law and compromise their independence, while 18 Israeli left-wing NGOs condemned the decision as breaching core principles of neutrality and independence.
Gaza authorities say more than 70,000 people have been killed and 174,000 wounded since the war began in October 2023, with nearly 80 percent of buildings damaged or destroyed. About 1.5 million of Gaza’s more than two million residents have been displaced, according to Palestinian NGOs.
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