UNRWA says no aid reaching Gaza as Egypt refuses cooperation with Israeli forces controlling crossing

Little to no aid has entered the Gaza Strip since Israel began its invasion of Rafah border crossing last week, a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) official told Mada Masr on Sunday.

Israel cast aside months of international warnings about the inevitable humanitarian toll of military operations in Rafah last week, sending its tanks into the area of land along Gaza’s border with Egypt — an area subject to security agreements between Cairo and Tel Aviv.

The Occupation military takeover effectively prevented all humanitarian aid from entering the strip, following an earlier Israeli shutdown of aid entry from the Karm Abu Salem border crossing.

UNRWA Communications Director Julliette Touma told Mada Masr that UN bodies were only allowed to send in 157,000 liters of fuel on Friday and six trucks of food on Saturday, all through Karm Abu Salem — far below the daily needs of Palestinians in the strip.

Meanwhile, the Rafah border crossing, Touma noted, has been closed since Israel invaded the facility last week.

Angered by the expansion of Israel’s operation in Rafah since it took control of the crossing, Egypt is reportedly refusing to coordinate with Israel regarding its operation.

High-level Egyptian sources were quoted in several domestic and regional outlets on Saturday night acknowledging prior coordination between Egypt and Israel prior to the invasion of the border crossing last week and noting Egypt’s refusal to cooperate further due to Israel’s escalation.

Egypt’s initial response to the operation in Rafah was a condemnation from the Foreign Ministry and a call for “both sides” to return to diplomacy to establish a truce.

While Egypt did not publicly acknowledge that it had coordinated with the Israeli military prior to its operation in Rafah, crossing staff withdrew and aid trucks and goods were cleared from both sides of the border, while the main company facilitating commercial travel out of Gaza — Ibrahim al-Argany’s Hala — left the Egyptian side of the crossing hours before Israel’s advance on the facility.

Israel initially called the offensive a “precise” operation on specific Hamas targets. But its military put out an expanded order for residents and displaced people to evacuate a new set of east-central Rafah neighborhoods on Saturday morning.

An Egyptian source with knowledge of the truce negotiations which Egypt is mediating between Israel and Egypt told Mada Masr on condition of anonymity last week that one scenario is for the Rafah operation to last seven to 10 days, and the second for it to extend up to six weeks. According to the source, the Egyptian aim was to ensure the first scenario and prevent Israel moving its military operation from east Rafah to its west in order to prevent it getting close to the Egyptian border and occupying the border.

Over 300,000 people were estimated to have left Rafah since Israel began its attack on the area, UNRWA said on Sunday.

A high-level source told the state-aligned Al-Qahera News on Saturday evening that Egypt refused to coordinate with Israel regarding the Rafah crossing due to the “unacceptable Israeli escalation.” Citing the same reason, a high-level Egyptian source was quoted by SkyNewsArabia on the same evening saying Egypt was refusing to coordinate with Israel on aid deliveries.

Israeli sources were likewise cited in Saturday night’s press saying that Egypt had coordinated with Israel before the operation began, but was no longer willing to do so. “Egypt retreated from all [prior] arrangements around the Rafah crossing operation after the Israeli flag was raised on the Palestinian side,” Al-Qahera News reported, citing an Israeli official speaking to an Israeli outlet. Similarly, an Israeli official cited in Sky News Arabia said that “there was coordination with Cairo before controlling the Rafah crossing, but Egypt withdrew after tanks were pictured and the Israeli flag was waved at the Rafah crossing.”