The United Nations humanitarian agency, OCHA, confirmed this Saturday that twenty trucks with food, water and medicine entered the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Islamist group Hamas, through the Rafah crossing, bordering Egypt.

The deputy director of the OCHA Office in the Palestinian territories, Andrea De Domenico, told EFE that the Egyptian Red Cross is leading the operation to bring assistance into the Palestinian enclave.

He admitted that this aid will not be enough for the Palestinians who are in Gaza, where 2.3 million people live, of which 1.4 million, according to OCHA, are internally displaced by Israel’s bombings in the northern part. of the Strip.

There are “negotiations” to extend it over time

De Domenico indicated that there are “negotiations” between the parties concerned so that the delivery of aid is “sustainable” over time.

From the Egyptian part of Rafah, volunteers told EFE that no ambulances or fuel trucks have entered and that the aid is provided by the Egyptian Red Crescent and NGOs that are part of the government coalition National Alliance for Civil Development.

The Rafah crossing, in the south of Gaza and bordering Egypt, is the only exit to the outside of the Strip, since the rest of the border crossings it has are with Israel.

The crossing has been closed since the beginning of Israel’s bombing campaign, in retaliation for the Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7, which left 1,400 dead and more than 200 kidnapped and taken to Gaza.

Unicef ​​warns that water barely entered Gaza for 22,000 people in one day

Only two of the 20 trucks that entered the Gaza Strip today through the Rafah crossing were carrying shipments of water, according to EFE, which will supply only 22,000 people for one day, according to the United Nations Fund for Childhood (Unicef).

In a statement, the organization detailed that it had supplied “more than 44,000 bottles of drinking water” through the convoy of 20 trucks organized by the Egyptian Red Moon, the World Health Organization and the World Food Programme, although it specified that this amount is only “enough for 22,000 people for one day.”

The trucks also carried coffins

“With one million children in Gaza now facing a critical humanitarian and protection crisis, water supply is a matter of life and death. Every minute counts,” UNICEF Executive Director said in a statement. Catherine Russell.

In the note, the organization warned of the urgent need to provide “not only water, but also food, fuel, medicine and essential goods and services” to serve 1.4 million people, almost two thirds of the 2.2 million who live in the Strip, who have been displaced by Israel’s attacks on the Palestinian enclave since last October 7.

“Much of Gaza’s infrastructure, including critical water and sanitation systems, has been reduced to rubble in almost two weeks of escalating violence,” UNICEF said, noting that “water production capacity is at 5 % of normal levels, and Gaza’s nearly 2.3 million people now survive on 3 liters of water per person per day.”

Faced with this situation, Unicef ​​assured that it has prepared additional emergency supplies for up to 250,000 people at the Rafah border crossing, which can enter Gaza “in a matter of hours”, despite the fact that the crossing was closed after the 20 trucks unloaded supplies and return to Egypt.