Officials say that Egypt and the U.N. are working to get aid into Gaza

Hamas is letting aid through the crossing of the enclave with Egypt and Israel, and an explosion at the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City

It is important to get aid through the closed Rafah border crossing with Egypt because it is the most convenient way to get it to Gaza. Trucks have lined up on the Egyptian side, and people hoping to get out have gathered on the Gaza side.

The president said on Wednesday that he had secured commitments from Israel and Egypt to allow aid to get through the crossing and that Egypt would allow 20 aid trucks to enter the enclave, but did not specify when.

There are only trucks waiting to cross the border at Egypt’s Rafah, where there are some 3000 tons of food, water and medicine.

It is unclear if any fuel would be included in the shipment. With the main power plant of Gaza unable to operate, aid groups say that the fuel is needed to power desalination and wastewater plants.

“All of Gaza is waiting for the aid,” Wael Abu Omar, the spokesman for Hamas’s interior ministry, said Thursday. “Of course we’ll let the aid through.”

As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza intensifies and Israel readies an expected ground invasion, scores of people have been waiting on the Gaza side for days in hopes of leaving.

Efforts were made to get foreign nationals out of Gaza prior to opening the crossing. E.U. officials said on Thursday that there had been no progress on that front. There are approximately 350 to 400 Americans; 1,200 E.U. citizens; 300 Canadians; 200 British citizens and 45 Australians in Gaza, according to diplomats.

Since an explosion at the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, calls for a cease-fire have become louder. Most of the people killed in the blast were patients at the hospital and people who had sought a safe area to stay, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

The explosion sparked protests in the area, including in the West Bank where Israeli forces killed three Palestinians overnight.

Update: U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Gaza, and the UP First Newsletter

On Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called for an “immediate cease-fire” in order to facilitate Hamas’s release of the hostages and for Israel to allow unrestricted access to aid.

Guterres is expected to arrive in Cairo Thursday as part of a wave of diplomatic efforts to address the crisis; British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was set to arrive in Israel Thursday to meet Netanyahu, and French leader Emmanuel Macron was expected to follow in the coming days.

Most of the 1,400 people killed in Israel were on Oct. 7. Palestinian health officials say that the death toll in Gaza has reached 3,478, along with more than 60 dead in the West Bank.

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Diplomats and aid workers on Thursday were hammering out the logistics of getting food and medicine into Gaza a day after President Biden said Israel agreed to allow it.

The area around the crossing has repeatedly been bombed by Israel. On Thursday, Egyptian workers were repairing roads so that the large trucks loaded with aid would be able to pass, according to an aid official briefed on the situation.

Major humanitarian groups including the World Health Organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross also have sent equipment and supplies.

Egyptian officials are holding intensive talks in Cairo with the U.N. secretary general, António Guterres; his humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths; and a special U.S. envoy about how to deliver the aid to Gaza.

The border crossing area is closed to non-Egyptian officials. It sits in a province where Egypt has fought militants for years, and the government in Cairo is wary of any spillover from the Gaza conflict.

Officials said Thursday that efforts were underway to address those concerns — most likely by having the Egyptian Red Crescent handle the aid on the Egyptian side and turn it over to the Palestinian Red Crescent on the Gaza side.

Israel wants the cargo checked for weapons that could be used for attacks. The American, U.N. and Egyptian officials are discussing who would carry out those cargo inspections, a person directly familiar with the matter said, requesting anonymity to speak about the delicate negotiations.

Abood Okal, a Palestinian American who has been stranded with his wife and son for over a week, said he was very concerned that there had been no update on the situation in Gaza.

Mr. Okal said that there had been an explosion not far from the house where he was staying on Thursday morning. With no safe place to go, and no evacuation plan in sight, he wrote, “We are extremely afraid for our lives.”