(May 24, 2024 / JNS)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi agreed to restore the flow of aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during a telephone call with U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday.
Egypt halted U.N. aid deliveries into the southern city of Rafah after the Israeli military took control of the Gazan side of the Egypt-Gaza border. In Friday’s call, el-Sisi agreed to let the aid flow through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing near the Egyptian border.
“President Biden welcomed the commitment from President el-Sisi to permit the flow of U.N.-provided humanitarian assistance from Egypt through the Kerem Shalom crossing on a provisional basis for onward distribution throughout Gaza,” the White House stated in its readout of the call. “This will help save lives.”
The Egyptian readout of the call said that the deliveries would consist of “humanitarian aid and fuel” and would continue “temporarily until a legal mechanism is reached to reoperate the Rafah crossing from the Palestinian side.”
Yes, the US said from the beginning that the pier would not be able to supply Gaza by itself. That’s why resuming supply from Egypt is significant.
Pre-invasion, only 500 trucks went into Gaza per day. If the US can provide 150, that’s 30% of the pre-invasion total. It doesn’t solve the problem, but it does ameliorate it.
There’s a lot more need than pre-invasion levels. There was local agriculture in Gaza, functional bakeries, a water pipeline, electricity, etc.
Now all of those things need to be trucked in instead.
Fair enough. I believe the estimated need is now 600 trucks, so the US can supply up to 25%