About 50 kilometers from the Gaza border, trucks carrying
flour, water and other aid line a dusty road in both directions. The drivers
say they have been waiting for several weeks in the searing Egyptian summer
heat.
The standstill is exacerbating Gaza's dire humanitarian
crisis after nine months of war between Israel and Palestinian
militant group Hamas. Aid groups warn there is a high risk of famine
across the besieged coastal territory.
The truck drivers, parked on the outskirts of the Egyptian
city of al-Arish in the Sinai Peninsula, say they have been unable to deliver
humanitarian supplies ever since Israel expanded its offensive on the
Gaza-Egypt border in May.
Some food has had to be discarded, they said.
"I swear to God, before this load, we came here and
stood for more than 50 days and eventually the load was returned because it had
expired," said truck driver Elsayed el-Nabawi.
"We had to turn around and return it. We loaded another
batch, and here we are standing again and only God knows if this load will make
it before it expires or what will happen to it."
The Israeli military started its assault on the southern
Gazan city of Rafah in May. The Rafah crossing between Gaza and
Egypt, a lifeline to the outside world for Gazans, allowing the delivery of aid
and the evacuation of patients, has been shut since then.
Talks involving Egypt, the United States and Israel have
failed to reopen Rafah, where Egypt wants a Palestinian
presence restored on the Gazan side of the border. Israeli flags now fly over
Gazan buildings destroyed along the border with Egypt.
"We've been stranded here for over a month waiting to
deliver this load. We've waiting for our turn but nothing yet" said Ahmed
Kamel, another of the truck drivers, who sit by their vehicles drinking tea and
smoking cigarettes.
"We don't know our fate - when we will be able to
enter? Today? Tomorrow? The day after tomorrow? Only God knows. Will the stuff
we're carrying hold up or most of it will go bad?"
Aid and commercial supplies have still entered Gaza through
other land border crossings, through air drops and by sea, but aid groups and
Western diplomats say the supplies are far below needs. The drivers say they
are waiting for Israeli permission.
