The 20 trucks transporting food, medicine and supplies entered Gaza on Monday from Egypt via the Rafah border crossing, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society announced in a statement.
Pictures of smiling staff posing with the trucks accompanied the note, and though a small victory, it follows 20 trucks having entered the besieged Gaza Strip on Saturday and 15 on Sunday, when days earlier there were few signs that the dozens of aid-loaded trucks parked in Egypt would be allowed to cross Rafah.
Though a fraction of the hundreds of trucks a day pre-war that would enter Gaza, the delivery is nonetheless a diplomatic win for U.S. President Joe Biden who flew to Tel Aviv late last week and gained assurances from Egypt that it would allow supplies into Gaza through Rafah and from Israel.
Following the first convoy on Saturday, there were no guarantees more would follow, though Biden had said further convoys may gain access to Gaza if the "first tranche" entered without problem.
"The United States remains committed to ensuring that civilians in Gaza will continue to have access to food, water, medical care and other assistance, without diversion by Hamas," Biden tweeted Monday following the Palestinian Red Crescent Society's announcement.
Biden earlier Monday said he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Gaza and "we affirmed that there will now be a continued flow of this critical aid to Palestinians in need."
Israel's Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories agency under the ministry of defense confirmed that in the last three days, 54 trucks have entered Gaza after its inspection.
None of the trucks carried any fuel, which Palestinian officials now say they are running extremely low on.
On Sunday, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N.'s relief works agency for Palestinian refugees, warned that they will run out of fuel in three days, after which there will be no water or functioning hospitals in Gaza where Israel has cut electricity.
The Palestinian health ministry Monday said that 12 hospitals and 32 health centers were already out of service due to Israeli attacks and fuel shortages.
On Sunday, health officials warned that if they don't receive fuel soon, 140 patients on ventilators and another 1,100 suffering from kidney failure would die.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, told reporters during a press conference Monday that there is fuel on the other side of Rafah. He wouldn't say why it hasn't been allowed entrance to Gaza, only that there are "hurdles" in the way.
The lack of fuel is a "grave concern," he said.
"I checked in with our UNRWA colleagues just before walking in here ... and they can see the bottom of the fuel tank. I mean, we're talking days. And when that happens, that will be truly devastating, on top of what is already a devastating humanitarian situation."
Israel launched its war on Gaza following Hamas' secret Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,400 people and saw more than 100 others taken hostage. The incessant bombing of the Gaza Strip that followed has killed 5,087 people, including more than 2,000 children, and injured more than 15,000, according to Monday statistics from the Palestinian health ministry.
Among the dead in Gaza are 35 UNRWA staff, an increase of six from a day prior, the agency said, adding that nearly 600,000 internally displaced Palestinians, which is nearly 30% of all Gaza residents, are sheltering in one of its 150 facilities.
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