US President Joe Biden on Wednesday said Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah El Sisi has agreed to open the Rafah border crossing into Gaza to allow in 20 lorries with humanitarian aid.
Mr Biden said on Air Force One that he spoke to Mr El Sisi after visiting Israel, where leaders agreed to allow the aid in.
Mr El Sisi agreed to "let up to 20 trucks through to begin with", the US President told reporters.
He said it might take until Friday before the aid made it into Gaza, due to the poor condition of roads.
Mr Biden has finished a short visit to Israel, where he reaffirmed US commitment to Israel's security and called for humanitarian supplies to enter Gaza.
Lorries carrying critical aid to the besieged Gaza Strip have been stuck on the Egyptian side of the border for days, waiting for a diplomatic breakthrough that will allow them to enter.
Earlier on Wednesday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would not allow aid to enter through its borders with Gaza, but would not stop it coming in through Egypt's Rafah crossing.
Mr Biden's trip to Israel was upended after a strike on a hospital in Gaza on Tuesday killed hundreds of people who had been sheltering there.
Palestinians and Arab nations blamed Israel for the blast, but Israel said the strike came from a failed rocket launch by the Islamic Jihad militant group.
A planned summit of Arab leaders in Amman that was set to include Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Mr El Sisi was called off afterwards.
The hospital attack drew worldwide condemnation and protests in major capitals.
Twenty lorries is a limited amount of aid, as Gaza is home to 2.3 million people who have been living under a land, air and sea blockade since 2007, when Hamas took over the territory.
Israel tightened its blockade of the tiny enclave on October 7, after Hamas gunmen launched a surprise attack on parts of southern Israel, killing 1,400 people and taking about 200 others hostage.
Israel responded by bombarding the Gaza Strip with air strikes that have killed about 3,500 people so far, Gazan authorities say.
Israel also blocked the entry of water, electricity, food and medicine, drawing international condemnation and concerns from the UN over a humanitarian crisis.
The aid is set to go to humanitarian organisations for distribution.
Israel had told of concerns that Hamas might confiscate aid.
If that were to happen, Mr Biden said: “It will end.”
Protests erupt after Gaza hospital strike kills hundreds - in pictures
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Iran's dirty tricks to dodge sanctions
There’s increased scrutiny on the tricks being used to keep commodities flowing to and from blacklisted countries. Here’s a description of how some work.
1 Going Dark
A common method to transport Iranian oil with stealth is to turn off the Automatic Identification System, an electronic device that pinpoints a ship’s location. Known as going dark, a vessel flicks the switch before berthing and typically reappears days later, masking the location of its load or discharge port.
2. Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, analysts say.
3. Fake Destinations
Signaling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargo from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free places like Iraq. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
4. Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin.
* Bloomberg
War
Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor
Rating: Two out of five stars
India squad for fourth and fifth Tests
Kohli (c), Dhawan, Rahul, Shaw, Pujara, Rahane (vc), Karun, Karthik (wk), Pant (wk), Ashwin, Jadeja, Pandya, Ishant, Shami, Umesh, Bumrah, Thakur, Vihari
The 100 Best Novels in Translation
Boyd Tonkin, Galileo Press
NYBL PROFILE
Company name: Nybl
Date started: November 2018
Founder: Noor Alnahhas, Michael LeTan, Hafsa Yazdni, Sufyaan Abdul Haseeb, Waleed Rifaat, Mohammed Shono
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Software Technology / Artificial Intelligence
Initial investment: $500,000
Funding round: Series B (raising $5m)
Partners/Incubators: Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 4, Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 6, AI Venture Labs Cohort 1, Microsoft Scale-up
Omar Yabroudi's factfile
Born: October 20, 1989, Sharjah
Education: Bachelor of Science and Football, Liverpool John Moores University
2010: Accrington Stanley FC, internship
2010-2012: Crystal Palace, performance analyst with U-18 academy
2012-2015: Barnet FC, first-team performance analyst/head of recruitment
2015-2017: Nottingham Forest, head of recruitment
2018-present: Crystal Palace, player recruitment manager
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Profile
Name: Carzaty
Founders: Marwan Chaar and Hassan Jaffar
Launched: 2017
Employees: 22
Based: Dubai and Muscat
Sector: Automobile retail
Funding to date: $5.5 million
Tips to keep your car cool
- Place a sun reflector in your windshield when not driving
- Park in shaded or covered areas
- Add tint to windows
- Wrap your car to change the exterior colour
- Pick light interiors - choose colours such as beige and cream for seats and dashboard furniture
- Avoid leather interiors as these absorb more heat
South Africa squad
Faf du Plessis (captain), Hashim Amla, Temba Bavuma, Quinton de Kock (wicketkeeper), Theunis de Bruyn, AB de Villiers, Dean Elgar, Heinrich Klaasen (wicketkeeper), Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Morne Morkel, Wiaan Mulder, Lungi Ngidi, Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg result:
Ajax 2-3 Tottenham
Tottenham advance on away goals rule after tie ends 3-3 on aggregate
Final: June 1, Madrid
