On Saturday, 20 trucks carrying international aid supplies crossed the Rafah border crossing from Egypt, and on Sunday 17. This is the only access to the Palestinian territory through which aid supplies can currently be transported.

According to the UN, which speaks of a catastrophic situation, at least a hundred trucks with aid supplies would have to reach the sealed-off Gaza Strip every day in order to provide basic supplies to the 2.4 million people trapped there.

The radical Islamic Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip, launched a major attack on Israel on October 7th, killing around 1,400 people. The heavily armed Islamists also kidnapped around 200 people as hostages. In response to the attack, Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip and launched massive airstrikes. According to Hamas, more than 4,600 people have been killed in the narrow coastal strip since the war began.