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A car passed by to sell bread and cigarettes. The border gate opened now and then to let empty trucks through, returning from the Gaza Strip.

Truck driver Ahmed Naim Ibrahim has been one of the first in line. On Thursday, no trucks were let in, Ibrahim said, due to congestion on the other side of the border. After entering the Rafah crossing, trucks first have to drive 40km (24 miles) south along the border towards the Al-Owga crossing between Egypt and Israel, Ibrahim explained. There, the Israelis inspect the trucks, after which they return to Rafah. Only then can the trucks unload the aid that is being delivered to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

From the moment a truck moves into the Rafah border crossing it takes two or three more days for the aid to be distributed in the Gaza Strip, Ibrahim said. “There is a line of 20km (12 miles) before the Israeli inspection,” he added.

Another driver, Saleh Ebada, agreed. “The inspection takes time, this is what causes the delay.” The trucks driven by Ebada and Ibrahim carry medicines, food, water, blankets and shrouds to cover the deceased.

“We are here because we want to support our brothers in Gaza,” said Hazem Mohamed, a volunteer for the Egyptian charity organization Resala, which has 21 trucks waiting in line at the border. He is frustrated about the long wait. “Every day we are supposed to go in, but every time they postpone it to the next day,” he said. “But it is not in our hands. We must help, and the least we can do. Waiting for eight days is nothing compared to what those in Gaza are going through.”

Ibrahim and other drivers had hoped that they would be able to cross on Friday, but as the ceasefire ended, no trucks were let in. During the truce, the number of trucks entering the Rafah border increased from fewer than 100 to about 200 per day, but many of these are still stuck at the Israeli inspection. UN officials have said that, on average, 500 trucks used to enter the Strip daily before October 7, when Israel started its bombardment.

Trucks can be turned back to Egypt if the Israeli inspectors find “forbidden” things, drivers said. One, named Taha, said that for instance, small kitchen knives, scissors and gas canisters were not allowed. Israeli officials have said their checks are needed to ensure no weapons are being smuggled in for Hamas.

There are also X-rays on the Egyptian side of the border, to check the trucks before they enter the Rafah crossing. One volunteer explained that Egypt wants to make sure the trucks do not carry things Israel would block, to prevent any problems.

Besides aid, the Rafah border crossing has been a pathway for more than 9,000 people to leave Gaza in recent weeks.

According to official numbers in Egypt, 8,691 foreign or dual nationals entered the country between November 1 and November 29, including the period of the truce.

In the same period, 389 wounded Palestinians and 328 other people accompanying them also arrived in Egypt. They are being treated in a field hospital near the border in Sheikh Zuweid and in hospitals in El Arish and other cities in Egypt.

Among the Palestinians allowed to leave Gaza were 28 premature babies who were in al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City before it was taken over by Israeli forces. Of the 28 babies, 16 were first taken to El Arish General Hospital 45km (28 miles) from Rafah, while the remaining 12 were moved to Cairo.

But a doctor at El Arish hospital said on Thursday that one of the 16 babies at the facility had died. Six were taken to Cairo, while the remaining nine are in good condition. “They are healthy and growing,” the doctor said, who requested to remain anonymous as he was not the official spokesperson of the hospital.

Still, their future remains uncertain, as they are in Egypt without family. Many have no surviving direct family members, and it is unclear who, and where, their remaining relatives are, the doctor said. “Until we find them, they stay in the hospitals.”

One of the adult Palestinians treated in El Arish General Hospital is Rasha Elwan. Her legs were crushed by falling debris when an Israeli air strike hit her house in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

She was taken to El Arish on November 21. “When I arrived here it was more comfortable. I am a little calmer here,” she said. Before being taken to El Arish, she was in Nasser’s hospital in the Gaza Strip. “In Gaza, the situation is disastrous. It was very difficult, there were a lot of wounded in the hospital. The doctors did not have time for all of us.”

In El Arish, she underwent an operation, and doctors told her she might need another one. “Maybe I have to stay another two weeks in the hospital here, and afterward I could go to Cairo to continue treatment,” she said. She hopes to stay in Egypt, but her family is still in Gaza. “My son died, and my husband is in a hospital in Gaza, he has not come here yet.”

Doctors at the hospital said that once the wounded are released, the diplomats from the mission of the Palestinian Authority in Egypt take care of them. There is a place in El Arish where the recovered Palestinians can stay for at least as long as the fighting continues. No one has been returned to Gaza, one doctor said, “only those who died”.

It is unclear what would happen to the wounded Palestinians in Egypt, and whether Elwan could stay in Egypt if the fighting in Gaza were to stop.

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The third attack on the Rafah crossing in 24 hours consisted of “four missiles” that targeted the Palestinian side of the crossing, local Egyptian group Sinai for Human Rights said on Tuesday.

Witnesses had said the second attack hit the no-man’s land between the Egyptian and Palestinian gates, damaging the hall on the Palestinian side. The Israel military said it could “neither confirm or deny” any attack on the crossing “at this point”, the AFP news agency reported.

NGO Sinai for Human Rights said Tuesday’s attacks prompted the closure of the crossing, but there was no immediate confirmation from either side.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Israeli military revised a recommendation by one of its spokespeople that Palestinians fleeing its air raids in Gaza head to Egypt.

Rafah is the sole possible crossing point into Sinai for Gaza’s 2.3 million residents. The rest of the 40km-long (25-mile-long) strip of land is surrounded by Israel and the sea. The passage of people and goods is strictly controlled under a blockade of Gaza enforced by Egypt and Israel.

Meanwhile, Israel’s assault on Gaza has reportedly caused alarm in Egypt, which has urged Israel to provide safe passage for civilians from the besieged enclave rather than encouraging them to flee southwest towards Sinai, two Egyptian security sources told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Tuesday said the escalation in Gaza was “highly dangerous” and that Egypt was pushing with regional and international partners for a negotiated solution to the violence.

Egypt would not allow the issue to be settled at the expense of others, el-Sisi said in comments reported by state news agency MENA, an apparent reference to the risk that Palestinians could be pushed into Sinai.

Egypt, the first Arab country to normalize relations with Israel, has mediated between Israel and Palestinian factions during previous conflicts in Gaza and has pressed to prevent further escalation in the current fighting.

Israel has been pounding Gaza with the fiercest attacks in the 75-year history of its conflict with the Palestinians after Hamas launched a deadly and unprecedented incursion into Israel on Saturday.

On Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant ordered a “total blockade” of Gaza, cutting access to water, food, fuel and electricity. Such a siege of Gaza by the Israeli army, with the intent to starve a population, is a war crime under United Nations statutes.

“What it seems to me is that the measures taken, including the bombing of the Rafah crossing, hints to an intention to really starve and kill the people who are innocent inside the Gaza Strip,” UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese told Al Jazeera, adding that Palestinians in Gaza are concerned that they could experience something akin to a “second Nakba” in the days ahead.

Gaza’s health ministry on Tuesday said at least 830 people, including women and children, have been killed and more than 4,250 wounded since Saturday. At least 900 Israelis have also been killed since the unprecedented attack by Hamas.

The siege of Gaza has also raised fears that Palestinian civilians could find themselves facing an enormous onslaught, or even an Israeli ground invasion, with nowhere to flee.

Gaza’s Hamas-run interior ministry said Israeli bombardments on Monday and Tuesday hit an entry gate on the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing. The crossing was also closed from the Egyptian side and Palestinians planning to travel to Gaza retreated to north Sinai’s main city of Al Arish, Egyptian sources said.

The latest attack on Rafah follows a similar incident on Monday that partially disrupted operations at the border, though Egyptian security sources said access for registered travelers and humanitarian activity had been restored by Tuesday morning.

On Monday, about 800 people left Gaza through the Rafah crossing and about 500 people entered, though the crossing was closed for the movement of goods, according to the United Nations humanitarian office.

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upon the directives of the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi; administrative and technical staff on borders will continue to facilitate all procedures needed for the passing of reconstruction materials and humanitarian aids.

The crossing has been opened according to directives of President Sisi since May 16, 2021. This comes within the framework of the Egyptian efforts to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian citizen in the strip, restore the normal life of people in Gaza and start the reconstruction process.

In a bilateral meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo on Thursday, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi affirmed the need for concerted efforts during the coming period to back the Palestinian stance toward a political settlement.

Sisi stressed the need for the resumption of negotiations and the consolidation of truce between the Palestinian and Israeli sides, Presidential Spokesperson Bassam Radi said in a statement.

This should come in parallel with the efforts to unify the Palestinian ranks through the completion of the reconciliation process and consensus among Palestinian factions and powers.

The president also affirmed the importance of backing the Palestinian Authority and its role in the Gaza Strip as well as the need to improve the humanitarian and economic situations in the strip.

Sisi stressed the continuation of its efforts regarding the Palestinian cause, in coordination with the Palestinian brothers, with the aim of helping the Palestinian people restore their legitimate rights, in accordance with the international legitimacy resolutions.

For his part, Abbas voiced appreciation of the Egyptian continuous efforts and endeavors to support the Palestinian cause.

He also hailed Egypt’s historic and unwavering role in this regard, which aims to reach a fair and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian cause.

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