(Photo: KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images) A convoy of trucks carrying aid supplies for Gaza from Egypt waits on the main Ismailia desert road, about 300 km east of the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip, on the way to the Rafah crossing on October 16, 2023. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said while departing from Cair on October 15 the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt "will be open" for aid into the blockaded strip.

Despite the setback of not being able to meet some Arab leaders in Jordan, US President Joe Biden managed to convince Israel to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza through the Rafah Crossing during his one-day trip on Wednesday (October 18).

According to the Associated Press, Israel would allow Egypt to deliver limited quantities of humanitarian aid to Gaza, the first time it would be accessed from the outside since the Israelis besieged the strip in response to Hamas's sabbath raid earlier this month.

The breakthrough was reached as people inside Gaza were running out of food, water, and essential supplies, which was exacerbated by the explosion at the Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital on Tuesday night (October 17).

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Badly-Needed Relief

Israel's decision to allow limited supplies of humanitarian goods was a badly needed relief for Gazans after it shut off all supplies to the strip prior to besieging it.

Because of the Al-Ahli explosion, hospitals that are still functioning were at risk of utter collapse because of the sheer number of patients they had to accommodate due to Israeli airstrikes and their dwindling medical supplies.

It was revealed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said the decision was approved after a request from Biden. It said that Israel "[would] not thwart" deliveries of basic goods from Egypt on the condition that they were limited only to civilians in the south of Gaza and would not go to Hamas militants allegedly stuck in the north.

However, the date for supplies to enter Gaza and the ceiling for such were not yet confirmed.

Long Line of Trucks

Ever since the beginning of the war, Egyptians and other individuals or groups have been waiting on the Egyptian side of the Rafah Crossing, similar to the convoy of goods that were stuck at the Lachin Corridor when Azerbaijan was blockading the fallen Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh a few weeks ago.

What made it worse was that the Egyptian government must still repair the road across the Gaza-Egypt border that was damaged by Israeli airstrikes.

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