Almost 200 trucks with humanitarian aid enter Gaza via Rafah

At least 193 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours via the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt, the Israeli government’s coordinator for the Palestinian territories has said.

"193 humanitarian aid trucks carrying food, water, medical supplies, and shelter equipment were inspected and transferred to the Gaza Strip via the Rafah Crossing on Dec. 14," the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said on the X social network, formerly known as Twitter, TASS reports.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion on Israeli territory, killing many Israeli kibbutz residents living near the Gaza border and abducting more than 200 Israelis, including women, children and the elderly.

Hamas described its attack as a response to Israeli authorities’ aggressive actions against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip and launched bombardments of the enclave and some areas in Lebanon and Syria, as well as a ground operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Clashes are also reported in the West Bank.