A medical team and 10 aid trucks have entered the Gaza Strip via the Rafah crossing with Egypt, carrying water, food and medicine, a Palestinian border official says.
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"This Friday morning, a medical delegation consisting of 10 foreign doctors entered, in addition to 10 trucks entering the Gaza Strip through the Rafah land crossing, carrying water, food and medicine, bringing the total number of trucks since the beginning of the war to only 84 trucks," the official told Reuters.
Detailed negotiations were taking place with Israel in a bid to secure more humanitarian crossings into the Israeli-besieged Palestinian enclave, Lynn Hastings, the United Nations Humanitarian Co-ordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory told reporters in Geneva.
Gaza has been hit by unrelenting Israeli air strikes that have killed thousands in response to a cross-border attack by Hamas gunmen into southern Israel on October 7.
"In addition to the technical issues and the security issues, there are political issues as well," Hastings said.
"And there's a certain amount of pressure on the government of Israel in terms of its domestic politics."
There is still no agreement to get fuel into Gaza, and the UN Palestinian refugee agency has said the absence of fuel was jeopardising life-saving humanitarian operations there.
Officials are also grappling with the issue of deciding how to distribute the scant aid.
"We are aware of the thousand patients that require dialysis and over 100 children and babies that are in incubators, so we do our best to try and make the prioritisation in accordance with the greatest needs," Hastings said.
Australian Associated Press
