Egypt's Rafah receives 3,000 tons of local humanitarian aid for Gaza: Governor

Ahram Online , Tuesday 17 Oct 2023

North Sinai's Rafah has received around 3,000 tons of food and medical aid from various Egyptian NGOs and entities for delivery to Gaza, the governor said, amid Israel's bombardment of the enclave.

Gaza
Egyptian relief convoy trucks in North Sinai await Rafah border crossing opening for Gaza transit. Photos courtesy of Decent Life Foundation

 

North Sinai’s Governor Mohamed Shousha made the remarks as he checked the aid convoy of Egypt's Homat Watan (the Protectors of the Nation) party, which comprises dozens of tons of food and relief materials for Gaza.

The convoy includes food staples and 1,000 blankets, the governorate said in a statement.

The aid was shipped from El-Arish to Rafah to be delivered to Gaza later, the governor noted.

The National Alliance for Civil Development Work (NACDW), a coalition of NGOs in Egypt, launched a massive relief and aid convoy early this week.

A NACDW campaign urging Egyptians to donate blood for Gazans in need has seen a huge turnout this week nationwide. The campaign, with the slogan “a drop of blood equals a life”, runs in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Health and the Egyptian Blood Bank.

On Monday, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed El-Tayyeb launched a “Save Gaza” campaign calling for people to support Gazans through donations to the Egyptian Zakat and Charity House that he supervises.

Egypt’s Decent Life Initiative foundation has also announced bank accounts to which Egyptians can donate to support the Palestinians in Gaza.

Aid from abroad
 

Meanwhile, Egypt has received hundreds of tons of humanitarian aid from abroad over the past few days, including Jordan, Turkey, UAE, and Tunisia as well as from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The aid was unloaded and transferred into border-bound trucks, according to the United Nations on Monday.

However, the much-needed donations from inside and outside the country remain stranded in El-Arish, North Sinai, about 50 km away from Rafah, as Israel has launched repeated strikes on the Rafah border crossing connecting Sinai with Gaza.

To date, there have been no official reports of when the crossing will open so that aid can be delivered to Gaza, which currently suffers from a worsening humanitarian situation due to Israel's unrelenting strikes.

Egypt has repeatedly called for the urgent entrance of humanitarian aid to Gaza in international forums.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Saturday that the border management on the Gazan side wants third-country nationals stranded in the enclave to come out first.

However, Egypt’s keenness to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and facilitate the exit of foreigners stranded in the enclave has been hindered by Israeli attacks that have made the process “inoperable,” Shoukry told CNN.

Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip have killed over 2,800 Palestinians and left nearly 11,000 injured, with the vast majority being women and children.

The ongoing missile strikes have left Gaza in ruins, with countless homes reduced to rubble, and its 2.3 million residents struggling with severe shortages of essentials like food, water, and electricity.

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