Second Aid Convoy Enters Gaza

Egyptian Red Crescent members and volunteers gather next to a truck carrying humanitarian aid as it drives through the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, Egypt October 22, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer
Egyptian Red Crescent members and volunteers gather next to a truck carrying humanitarian aid as it drives through the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, Egypt October 22, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer
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Second Aid Convoy Enters Gaza

Egyptian Red Crescent members and volunteers gather next to a truck carrying humanitarian aid as it drives through the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, Egypt October 22, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer
Egyptian Red Crescent members and volunteers gather next to a truck carrying humanitarian aid as it drives through the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah, Egypt October 22, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer

A convoy of 19 trucks bringing aid to besieged Palestinians crossed into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing on Sunday, Egypt’s state-run media reported.

A total of around 19 trucks in the convoy carrying medical and food supplies had been inspected by UNRWA, the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, sources said.

The delivery would be the second shipment into the territory in the past two days.

Residents of Gaza have been under an Israeli blockade that cut off food, water, medicine and electricity since Hamas rampaged through southern Israel on Oct. 7.

The more than 2 million residents of the territory have been struggling under Israeli airstrikes and with dwindling resources since then.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said it will run out of fuel in Gaza in three days.

“Without fuel, there will be no water, no functioning hospitals and bakeries. Without fuel, aid will not reach many civilians in desperate need. Without fuel, there will be no humanitarian assistance,” Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA Commissioner General, said in a statement Sunday.

A first delivery of aid that was allowed to cross into Gaza from Egypt on Saturday did not include any fuel.

"Without fuel, we will fail the people of Gaza whose needs are growing by the hour, under our watch. This cannot and should not happen,” Lazzarini said.

He called on “all parties and those with influence” to allow fuel into Gaza immediately, while ensuring that it is only used for humanitarian purposes.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said some of the water pipelines in Gaza have been restored, but “there are a couple of other pipelines” that Israel should restore.

He told NBC News in an interview that the US has concern about the spread of disease caused by the consumption of dirty water.



Biden Welcomes Gaza Truce, Says Region 'Fundamentally Transformed'

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Gaza ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, during a visit to the Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, South Carolina, US, January 19, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Gaza ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, during a visit to the Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, South Carolina, US, January 19, 2025. (Reuters)
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Biden Welcomes Gaza Truce, Says Region 'Fundamentally Transformed'

US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Gaza ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, during a visit to the Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, South Carolina, US, January 19, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the Gaza ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, during a visit to the Royal Missionary Baptist Church in North Charleston, South Carolina, US, January 19, 2025. (Reuters)

President Joe Biden on Sunday welcomed the ceasefire taking hold between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, saying the "region has been fundamentally transformed."

"After so much pain, death and loss of life, today the guns in Gaza have gone silent," the outgoing president said, just hours after the ceasefire took effect.

Biden was speaking during a visit to South Carolina on the last full day of his presidency, with Donald Trump set to succeed him -- and to inherit the complex task of helping shepherd the initial ceasefire to a more lasting peace.

Defending his determined support for Israel against criticism that it could have drawn the US into a wider war, Biden said he had considered that possibility.

"But I concluded abandoning the course I was on would not have led us to the ceasefire we're seeing today. But instead, it would have risked the wider war in the region that so many feared.

"Now the region has been fundamentally transformed."

Expounding on that, Biden said Hamas's top leaders had been killed and its "sponsors in the Middle East have been badly weakened by Israel, backed by the United States. Hezbollah, one of Hamas's biggest backers, was significantly weakened on the battlefield, and its leadership was destroyed."

He said Israel's military campaign was "extremely successful," leading Hamas's Hezbollah allies in Lebanon to abandon it, making way for Lebanon to install a new president and prime minister, "both of whom support a sovereign Lebanon."

In addition, Biden said: "The Assad regime next door in Syria is gone, removing Iran's ready access to Lebanon. Iran is in the weakest position in decades."

The fighting in Gaza has preoccupied Biden's administration since Hamas launched a surprise and bloody intrusion into Israel in October 2023.

In his comments he did not refer to the other main criticism of his administration's support for Israel as many Americans, aghast at the soaring death toll in the war, called during last year's presidential election for him to rein the US ally in.

Biden's aides have said the final terms of the ceasefire largely follow the outlines of the truce he proposed in May.

But President-elect Trump and his advisors say that only his tough talk and the involvement of his own aides alongside the Biden team helped finally quiet the guns in Gaza.

Biden on Sunday acknowledged the importance of the role played by Trump and his aides.

"Now it falls on the next administration to help them implement this deal," he said.

"I was pleased to have our team speak as one voice in the final days. It was both necessary and effective and unprecedented."