Egypt receives Qatari, Emirati planes carrying dozens of tons of aid for Gaza

CAIRO – 27 December 2023: El Arish International Airport in Egypt’s North Sinai received on Wednesday two planes from Qatar and the UAE carrying humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, state’s news agency MENA reported.

Khaled Zayed, the head of the Egyptian Red Crescent (ERC) in North Sinai, said the Emirati plane brought to Egypt 46,260 tons of aid, while 41,068 tons of food and blankets were delivered through the Qatari plane.

The aid will be delivered to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society through the Rafah border crossing, Zayed said.

So far, the Arish airport has received around 350 planes carrying over 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid from more than 40 countries and UN relief agencies, Zayed noted.

Meanwhile, the Rafah crossing is preparing to receive a new group of injured Palestinians from the Gaza hospitals to be treated in hospitals in Egypt.

In press remarks, an official medical source said coordination is underway to receive 25 injured Palestinians to be treated in hospitals in North Sinai and other Egyptian governorates. Ambulances affiliated with North Sinai governorate are ready to receive the injured Palestinians at the crossing.

On Tuesday, the crossing received six injured Palestinians and 10 of their relatives accompanying them. The injured were moved to the hospitals of Bir El Abd, Sheikh Zuweid, and Arish in North Sinai.

The Israeli aggression in Gaza since early October has so far killed nearly 21,000 people, most of whom are women and children, and injured around 55,000 people.

The Israeli unrelenting attacks have also displaced 85 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million population, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) last week, leaving the strip in one of the world’s worst tragedies and humanitarian crises.