Hundreds of trucks are waiting for a green light at the Rafah border in Egypt, poised to deliver lifesaving aid to 2.3 million besieged people in the Gaza Strip. What's inside the convoy?
Humanitarians continued to stand ready on Thursday to deliver lifesaving aid to Gaza following reports of an agreement brokered by the United States for 20 aid trucks to enter the enclave from Egypt.
UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland on Wednesday highlighted the need for an inquiry into the strike against a Gaza hospital that killed hundreds, including patients, staff and displaced people seeking shelter.
The United States on Wednesday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have called for “humanitarian pauses” to deliver lifesaving aid to millions in Gaza. The failure by the Council to make its first public intervention on the Israel-Gaza crisis followed the rejection of a Russian-backed draft on Monday evening.
UN chief António Guterres called on Wednesday for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Middle East to ease the “epic human suffering” in the Israel-Gaza conflict. The head of the UN health agency (WHO) said he welcomed the reported agreement between the US and Israel, which would allow food, water and medical aid into the battered enclave via the Egyptian border.
Infrastructure is a “crucial pathway” to generate economic growth, create decent jobs, transform energy systems, and advance sustainable development, the UN Secretary-General said in an address to world leaders meeting in Beijing, China on Wednesday.
In crises like the latest massive uptick in violence between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and talk of all-out war, the UN has a sensitive role to play – on both the political and humanitarian fronts.
The head of the UN Palestine refugee agency (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini, has reported that at least six people were killed on Monday afternoon local time, when an UNRWA school being used as a shelter, was hit in the al-Maghazi camp in the middle region of the embattled Gaza Strip.
The UN Security Council on Monday night in New York failed to adopt a resolution proposed by Russia that would have called for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, which has been ravaged by almost 10 days of fighting between Israel and Hamas militants. The text omitted any mention of the extremist group.
Less than a kilometre from Gaza, pallets of food, fuel, water, and medicine are among the hundreds of tonnes of lifesaving aid packed into a long convoy of trucks idling on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing, as drivers await Israel’s green light so they can reach 2.3 million besieged Palestinians caught in the crossfire of the ongoing war.
