WASHINGTON: The United States sent three military aircraft to Egypt on Tuesday to bring vital humanitarian aid for Gazans, senior US officials said.
The relief flights carrying food, medical supplies and winter gear are the first by the US military since the unrest began on Oct 7. The flights started a day after President Joe Biden said he would use an extension of the truce to get more aid into Gaza, and as international efforts continued to further prolong the pause.
“We are very glad to announce we will have the first of three relief flights that are facilitated by the unique capabilities of the US military that will be arriving in North Sinai in Egypt” on Tuesday, one of the US officials said.
“This will be to bring a series of items — medical items, food aid, winter items, given that winter’s coming in Gaza — for the civilian population,” the official said in an embargoed call on Monday.
‘Significant surge’
The United Nations will then take the aid from Egypt’s North Sinai region, which borders the Gaza Strip, into the stricken Palestinian territory itself, they said.
Two further planeloads will arrive “in coming days”, they said. Eight hundred aid trucks reached southern Gaza from Egypt in the first four days of the truce, with some aid also reaching badly-hit northern Gaza, the US officials said.
“The movement over the last four or five days of assistance has been so significant in volume that a backfill… is now needed and these planes are part of that backfill,” a second US official said.
Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2023
Source: dawn.com
