Trucks deliver fuel, cooking gas, food and medicine, in the largest aid convoy to Gaza since the war began.
Children use a donkey-pulled cart to transport empty gas canisters to be filled with cooking gas in Rafah in southern Gaza, on Saturday [Said Khatib/AFP]
The United Nations said the four-day truce between Israel and Hamas, which went into effect on Friday, has enabled it to scale up the delivery of food, water and medicine to the largest volume since the resumption of humanitarian aid convoys to Gaza on October 21.
The UN was also able to deliver 129,000 litres (34,078 gallons) of fuel – just over 10 percent of the daily pre-war volume – as well as cooking gas, for the first time since the war began.
In Rafah in southern Gaza on Saturday, many waited to fill gas canisters for cooking. “All the people are hoping and ready for it to make their lives easier,” said one resident, Ezzeddine Abu Omeira.
For the first time in over a month, aid also reached northern Gaza, the focus of Israel’s ground offensive. A UN convoy delivered flour to two facilities sheltering people displaced by the fighting.
Prior to the war, 500 trucks crossed into Gaza daily, according to OCHA, the United Nations humanitarian agency.
The UN estimates that 1.7 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced by the fighting which began on October 7.
Aid trucks move on a road in Rafah as Palestinians look on, during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel. [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]
Palestinians in Rafah gather during the temporary truce to buy fuel amid shortages. [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]
Palestinians wait for fuel on the second day of the truce on Saturday. [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]
People chat near empty gas canisters as they wait to access essential cooking gas. [Said Khatib/AFP]
Deliveries of supplies of fuel and cooking gas were blocked to the Gaza Strip for more than a month after the war began. [Hatem Ali/AP Photo]
Hundreds of people queue to buy fuel in the southern Gaza Strip. [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]
People carry canisters with cooking gas. [Said Khatib/AFP]
Women bake bread using a makeshift wood stove in Rafah, after trucks carrying aid, including fuel, food and medicine, began moving into Gaza. [Said Khatib/AFP]
Aid trucks move on a road in Rafah as Palestinians look on. [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]
