President Biden on Friday predicted trucks carrying humanitarian aid will enter Gaza within the next 48 hours amid concerns that the assistance has been blocked from crossing the border there.
“I got a commitment from the Israelis and the president of Egypt that the crossing will be open,” Biden told reporters during a meeting with European Union leaders. “The highway had to be repaved, it was in very bad shape, and I believe that within the next 24 to 48 hours, the first 20 trucks will come across with aid.”
Biden announced Wednesday while in Israel that he had secured a commitment from the Israelis to allow humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza through a border crossing with Egypt, “based on understanding that there will be inspections, and aid should go to civilians, not to Hamas.”
While en route back to Washington, Biden spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who agreed to allow up to 20 trucks of humanitarian aid into Gaza at the Rafah border crossing. In a readout of the call, the White House said the two leaders agreed to work together to encourage “an urgent and robust” international response to the unfolding humanitarian crisis.
But as of Friday, no aid had crossed the border into Gaza, where scores of Palestinians lack access to food, water and medicine, spurring fears of a humanitarian crisis. Gaza has been pummeled by Israeli strikes in recent days in response to terrorist attacks against Israel carried out by Hamas, which controls Gaza.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres was at the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza on Friday to sound the alarm about the need for aid.
“We absolutely need to have these trucks moving as quickly as possible and as many as necessary,” he said, per the U.N. “We are not looking for a win. We are looking for convoys to be authorized in meaningful numbers [and for] trucks to go every day into Gaza to provide enough support to the Gazan people.”
In addition to the deal brokered with Egypt and the Israelis, Biden this week announced $100 million in U.S. funding that would support more than 1 million displaced and conflict-affected Palestinians, including by filling emergency needs in Gaza.