On Friday, Egyptian officials agreed to send United Nations aid trucks into Gaza through the Rafah crossing which is currently being controlled by Israel.
According to the Associated Press, since the Israeli Army began its offensive in the city of Rafah two weeks ago, food and other supplies have plunged, causing humanitarian concerns in Gaza.
Since the offensive began, Israel seized the crossing that borders Egypt and has caused the nearly 300 trucks per day of aid to stop flowing into the area. The UN said that it only received 143 trucks in the last 19 days which has caused aid workers to warn that Gaza is near famine as the UNRAWA ran out of supplies.
In a Thursday post on X, the UNRAWA said, "We will be able to resume [food] distributions [in Rafah] as soon as we are able to bring the requisite number of trucks in through the Kerem Shalom crossing." It added, "We could resume tomorrow if the crossing reopened & we were provided with safe routes."
In a statement, the aid organization Mercy Corps said the offensive caused the crossing to close which "has brought the humanitarian system to its knees." It added, "If dramatic changes do not occur, including opening all border crossings to safely surge aid into these areas, we fear that a wave of secondary mortality will result, with people succumbing to the combination of hunger, lack of clean water and sanitation, and the spread of disease in areas where there is little medical care."
The AP reported that the top court of the United Nations also ordered Israel to immediately halt the offensive, as nearly 900,000 Palestinians attempted to flee Rafah for aid.
The announcement from Egypt comes on the same day as the bodies of three hostages from the Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel by Hamas were found in Gaza.
