EL-ARISH: Under the roar of military aircraft, workers were rushing to offload supplies at Egypt’s El-Arish airport as aid trickles into the stricken Gaza Strip after more than two weeks since the Zionist occupation declared war on Hamas. Officials barked orders and forklift trucks revved their engines, swerving at speed on the tarmac as they carried items including vital food and medicine for the Palestinian enclave.

Planeloads of aid have been landing for days at El-Arish, about 45 kilometers from the Rafah border crossing, the only route into Gaza that’s not controlled by the Zionist occupation. But it was only over the weekend that the first supplies were allowed to reach Gaza, where 2.4 million people have been under blockade for years and complete siege by the Zionists for two weeks.

The Zionist occupation has been relentlessly bombing Gaza since October 7, killing more than 5,087 Palestinians, mainly civilians. The escalated attacks came following the infiltration of hundreds of Hamas fighters into occupied areas near the Gaza border which left 1,400 people dead.

Three convoys of aid totaling about 50 trucks have cleared the Rafah crossing since Saturday. The United Nations estimates Gaza requires about 100 trucks a day to meet the needs of residents, almost half of whom are believed to have been displaced by the Zionist bombing campaign. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus issued a new appeal on Monday for “sustained safe passage” for medical essentials and fuel to keep health facilities open. “Lives depend on these decisions,” he said on social platform X. Mohammad Maher, 40, who has fled to the south from Gaza City in the north, told Reuters: “We don’t want food or money. We want this war to end. We want death to stop and we want this blind bombing of civilians to stop.” He described the amount of food aid that had arrived as “pathetic” and accused the Zionist occupation and the United States of seeking the starvation of Palestinians. “Shame on the world,” he said.

‘Pause’ needed

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday urged faster aid deliveries to Gaza, and said the bloc was debating calling for a “humanitarian pause” in the Zionist bombing on Gaza. Borrell said that the few dozen trucks of humanitarian aid that had been allowed into Gaza from Egypt was “not enough” and said fuel to produce power and drinking water was particularly needed.

He said ministers would discuss calls from United Nations’ secretary-general Antonio Guterres for a “humanitarian ceasefire” and the issue would be on the table at an EU leaders summit on Thursday. “Personally, I think that a humanitarian pause is needed in order to allow the humanitarian support to come in and be distributed, seeing that half of the population of Gaza has been moving from their houses,” Borrell said. He said “the attacks of missiles, rockets from Hamas, from Gaza, has to stop and the hostages, people who have been kidnapped, have to be released”. “It is part of any step towards de-escalation.”

Borrell said a pause would be a less ambitious objective than the “humanitarian ceasefire” called for by United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres. Despite Borrell’s assessment, a European official, who asked to stay anonymous, warned there was not yet a clear agreement among the 27 EU nations on issuing a call for a pause in the fighting.

No fuel

On Sunday, the UN said the lives of at least 120 newborn babies in incubators in Gaza’s hospitals are at risk as fuel runs out in the Palestinian enclave under renewed Zionist blockade in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack. The first batch of 20 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza via Rafah crossing with Egypt on Saturday, but the occupation continues to block fuel and electricity supplies critical to running hospitals and support several other essential services, such as bakeries.

Leaflets dropped by air and marked with the Zionist military logo automated phone messages sent to people across Gaza on Sunday delivered one message. “Whoever chooses not to leave north Gaza to the south of Wadi Gaza might be identified as an accomplice in a terrorist organization,” the leaflets said. Although the occupation has previously warned Palestinians to move south, it had not previously told them they could be identified as “terrorist” sympathizers if they did not. World Health Organization Director-General said on X that “It is impossible for these overcrowded hospitals to safely evacuate patients.” “They must be allowed to perform their lifesaving functions. They must be protected,” he added.

Tons of aid waiting

In less than an hour on Sunday, two Qatari planes and one Indian aircraft, all carrying aid, touched down at El-Arish, with scores of Egyptian Red Crescent workers scrambling to unload them. Youssef al-Mulla, a humanitarian aid worker with the Qatar Development Fund, said the Gulf emirate had supplied over 100 tons of aid destined for Gaza since the start of the crisis. “This is the fourth flight that we have sent to El-Arish,” he told AFP at the airport, explaining the first delivery had been “37 tons in two flights and these two flights have around 86 tons of aid”.

While Mulla, who accompanied one of the flights from Qatar, was hopeful all the supplies would reach Gaza, he said only two trucks of aid from Qatar had crossed at Rafah as of Sunday. The delays meant further aid earmarked for Gaza had remained in Doha, he said. “It’s ready to be sent at any time,” he said. As the first Qatari aircraft departed El-Arish on Sunday to return to Doha, the aid it brought stood carefully stacked and waiting on the runway’s apron. — Agencies