Israel allows humanitarian aid into Gaza
Israel allows 62 trucks with medical supplies, food into Strip, as Egypt opens joint Rafah border, allows wounded Palestinian to cross over to hospitals
Israel allowed 62 trucks carrying medical supplies and humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip through Sufa Crossing, Sunday. The supplies included, among others, thousands of blood units and basic foods.
Earlier Sunday, Egypt opened its only crossing with the Gaza Strip to receive wounded Palestinians, a day after 54 people were killed in Israel's latest offensive against militants firing rockets from the territory, said a medical official.
Egypt sent 27 ambulances to the Rafah Crossing to transfer 150-200 wounded Palestinians to hospitals in the Sinai Peninsula and other cities on the mainland, said Emad Kharboush, a medical official at el-Arish hospital near the Israeli border.
"We have mobilized all our efforts to receive and treat our Palestinian brothers in our hospitals," Kharboush told The Associated Press.
Sunday was the first time Egypt has agreed to open the crossing since the militant Palestinian group Hamas blew up part of the border wall on Jan. 23, letting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians cross over.
Hamas wants Egypt to reopen the crossing and give the group a role in monitoring the crossing, a demand rejected by Cairo. Egypt has called for a return to a 2005 agreement that gives Israel and the European Union monitors a supervisory role.
Also Sunday, the Saudi Press Agency quoted an unnamed official as saying "Israeli actions in Gaza are similar to Nazi war crimes."
"Saudi Arabia will contribute in building each Palestinian house destroyed by the Nazism of Israel," the official added.
Hanan Greenberg contributed to this report
