First post-ceasefire aid trucks enter Gaza: UN

RAFAH – Trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip on Sunday after a long-awaited truce between Israel and Hamas came into effect, the United Nations said.

“First trucks of supplies started entering” minutes after the ceasefire took effect on Sunday morning, UN aid official Jonathan Whittall, interim chief of the UN’s OCHA aid agency for the Palestinian territories, said on X.

“A massive effort has been underway over the past days from humanitarian partners to load and prepare to distribute a surge of aid across all of Gaza.”

An Egyptian source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that “260 trucks of aid and 16 of fuel” entered through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza and the Nitzana crossing between Egypt and Israel.

AFP journalists saw hundreds of trucks carrying aid at the Rafah border crossing and around El-Arish, 50 kilometres (31 miles) west.

The vehicles were waiting to proceed to the Israeli crossings with Egypt at Kerem Shalom and Nitzana for screening before being allowed in to Gaza.

Some trucks returned empty after offloading their cargo, and around a dozen ambulances were seen driving out of the main Rafah gate.

The Rafah border crossing — previously a vital entry point for aid — has been closed since May, when Israeli forces seized it on the Palestinian side.

Sunday’s truce comes after more than 15 months of war sparked by Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023, the deadliest in Israeli history.

It follows a deal struck by mediators Qatar, the United States and Egypt after months of negotiations, and takes effect on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president. –AFP