UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres flew to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula yesterday in a push to get aid flowing into the besieged Palestinian territory of Gaza, but it was unclear when delivery of relief materials stockpiled in Egypt would start.
In Geneva, Switzerland, the UN humanitarian office said it was in advanced talks with all parties in the Israel-Hamas conflict to ensure an aid operation can soon be conducted in Gaza.
The US said details of a deal to send aid through the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza were still being hammered out.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Earlier, Washington said agreement had been reached for the passage of the first 20 trucks, but UN officials said that any delivery of aid needs to be done at scale and in a sustained way.
Before the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, which controls Gaza, about 450 aid trucks were arriving there daily.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people depend on humanitarian aid.
“We are in deep and advanced negotiations with all relevant sides to ensure that an aid operation into Gaza starts as quickly as possible and with the right conditions,” UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs spokesperson Jens Laerke told reporters.
In related news, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday said a chartered plane has been arranged to evacuate Taiwanese from Israel, which was to depart from Tel Aviv at about 5:40pm yesterday Taipei time, making a stopover at Fiumicino International Airport in Rome, and was expected to arrive in Rome at about 8:25pm yesterday Taipei time.
Wu said as of yesterday afternoon there were 16 people that were to take the chartered flight, including nine Taiwanese, and that five of them are a family, three are backpackers, and one is a student; while the other seven people are from diplomatic allies — six from Guatemala and one from Paraguay.
As of yesterday morning, there were still 137 Taiwanese in Israel who were not willing to take the evacuation flight, Wu said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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