Plane with WHO medical supplies for Gaza arrives in Egypt

Cairo : The Egyptian Red Crescent said that a plane carrying medical supplies from WHO for the Gaza Strip has reached the El Arish airport in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

Khaled Zayed, Head of the Egyptian Red Crescent North Sinai branch, on Saturday confirmed the continuous delivery of urgent humanitarian aid to Gaza via a land bridge in coordination with the Palestine Red Crescent.

Since October 9, Gaza has been under a complete siege by Israeli forces in retaliation for the surprise attack on Israel a week ago by the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), the ruling faction of Gaza.

The Hamas-Israel conflict has so far left thousands of casualties on both sides, Xinhua news agency reported.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced sending the plane to El Arish airport "to support the urgent health needs in Gaza".

"We're ready to deploy the supplies as soon as humanitarian access through the crossing is established," Ghebreyesus posted on social media platform X.

On Friday, Israel gave a warning to more than one million residents of northern Gaza to evacuate toward the south before it carries out a massive offensive targeting Hamas.

"We continue our plea to Israel to reconsider the decision to evacuate 1.1 million people (in Gaza). It will be a human tragedy," the WHO chief said in the X post.

Israel's mass evacuation order was also met with rejection from several countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, as well as regional and international organisations, including the Arab League and the United Nations.

Since Thursday, Egypt's El Arish airport has received planes carrying aid supplies for Gaza from Jordan, the UAE, and Turkey.

IANS