A convoy of lorries carrying humanitarian aid enter the Gaza Strip from Egypt via the Rafah border crossing on October 21, 2023. AFP
A convoy of lorries carrying humanitarian aid enter the Gaza Strip from Egypt via the Rafah border crossing on October 21, 2023. AFP
A convoy of lorries carrying humanitarian aid enter the Gaza Strip from Egypt via the Rafah border crossing on October 21, 2023. AFP
A convoy of lorries carrying humanitarian aid enter the Gaza Strip from Egypt via the Rafah border crossing on October 21, 2023. AFP

Gaza aid convoy 'must not be the last', says UN relief chief as lorries cross border


Hamza Hendawi
  • English
  • Arabic

Live updates: Follow the latest news on Israel-Gaza

The first convoy carrying aid into the besieged Gaza Strip on Saturday “must not be the last”, the UN's humanitarian aid chief said as lorries loaded with supplies entered the war-torn enclave.

Martin Griffiths, the Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Co-ordinator, welcomed the news of the delivery, the first since the outbreak of hostilities on October 7, and warned that the humanitarian situation has reached “catastrophic levels”.

“I am confident that this delivery will be the start of a sustainable effort to provide essential supplies … to the people of Gaza,” said Mr Griffiths after 20 lorries crossed from Egypt into Gaza.

“This first convoy must not be the last,” he warned.

The aid includes life-saving supplies provided by the Egyptian Red Crescent and the United Nations which are approved to cross and be received by the Palestinian Red Crescent, with the support of the UN.

“The people of Gaza have endured decades of suffering. The international community cannot continue to fail them,” Mr Griffiths added.

Aid agencies have warned that the first delivery is a small amount for a population of 2.3 million who were heavily dependent on humanitarian assistance even before basic supplies, water, fuel and electricity were cut off.

There was no word immediately available on whether there would be further shipments of humanitarian supplies to Gaza from Egypt.

However, Egyptian officials said the delivery of further aid depended on the release by Hamas of civilians who are among the estimated 200 Israelis the militant Palestinian group's fighters took hostage when they attacked Israel on October 7.

Qatar is taking the lead in negotiating the release of hostages, said the officials.

Saturday's delivery follows days of intense negotiations to make sure that the aid operation into Gaza began as quickly as possible and with the right conditions.

“Two weeks since the start of hostilities, the humanitarian situation in Gaza – already precarious – has reached catastrophic levels. It is critical that aid reaches people in need wherever they are across Gaza, and at the right scale” Mr Griffiths' statement read.

Lorries laden with aid supplies entered the Palestinian territories from Egypt's Rafah border crossing on Saturday.

The delivery of aid to Gaza, battered by relentless Israeli bombardment, will ease the blockade enforced by Israel in the wake of Hamas's surprise attack on October 7 that killed 1,400 people, including women and children.

The launch of the aid operation ends more than a week-long wait by some 200 lorries on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing in the Sinai Peninsula.

The Israeli blockade denied Gaza's Palestinians water, fuel and electricity as its military killed more than 4,000 Palestinians and displaced one million.

Egyptian volunteers at the Egyptian side of the border crossing waved the lorries off, chanting pro-Palestinian slogans and waving Egyptian and Palestinian flags. The volunteers later offered a prayer of thanks.

While you're here
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Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Rating: 4/5

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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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THE BIO

Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979

Education: UAE University, Al Ain

Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6

Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma

Favourite book: Science and geology

Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC

Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.

The specs

AT4 Ultimate, as tested

Engine: 6.2-litre V8

Power: 420hp

Torque: 623Nm

Transmission: 10-speed automatic

Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)

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Specs

Engine: 51.5kW electric motor

Range: 400km

Power: 134bhp

Torque: 175Nm

Price: From Dh98,800

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Volvo ES90 Specs

Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)

Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp

Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm

On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region

Price: Exact regional pricing TBA

Buy farm-fresh food

The UAE is stepping up its game when it comes to platforms for local farms to show off and sell their produce.

In Dubai, visit Emirati Farmers Souq at The Pointe every Saturday from 8am to 2pm, which has produce from Al Ammar Farm, Omar Al Katri Farm, Hikarivege Vegetables, Rashed Farms and Al Khaleej Honey Trading, among others. 

In Sharjah, the Aljada residential community will launch a new outdoor farmers’ market every Friday starting this weekend. Manbat will be held from 3pm to 8pm, and will host 30 farmers, local home-grown entrepreneurs and food stalls from the teams behind Badia Farms; Emirates Hydroponics Farms; Modern Organic Farm; Revolution Real; Astraea Farms; and Al Khaleej Food. 

In Abu Dhabi, order farm produce from Food Crowd, an online grocery platform that supplies fresh and organic ingredients directly from farms such as Emirates Bio Farm, TFC, Armela Farms and mother company Al Dahra. 

The National's picks

4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
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Conflict, drought, famine

Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.

Band Aid

Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.

Company profile

Name: Infinite8

Based: Dubai

Launch year: 2017

Number of employees: 90

Sector: Online gaming industry

Funding: $1.2m from a UAE angel investor

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Rating: 1/5

The candidates

Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive

Ali Azeem, business leader

Tony Booth, professor of education

Lord Browne, former BP chief executive

Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist

Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist

Dr Mark Mann, scientist

Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner

Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister

Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster

 

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Transmission: 9-speed auto

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Updated: October 21, 2023, 5:21 PM`