Egypt has largely failed to deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinians in Gaza in recent weeks, contrary to claims made by President Joe Biden in an interview with the outlet Complex released Monday.
The Palestinians in Gaza have been caught in the crossfire of a war started by Hamas on Oct. 7, the date when the terrorist group invaded Israel and prompted a massive counter-response from Israeli forces. Biden told Complex in an interview that he was “the guy” to convince Egypt to open its borders to allow aid to flow into the region, but Cairo has not reopened a key crossing along its northern border and is only allowing a fraction of aid through another crossing compared to earlier in the year, according to The Economist.
“I’m the guy that did more for the Palestinian community than anybody,” Biden told Complex’s Speedy Morman in the interview. “I’m the guy that opened up all the assets. I’m the guy that made sure — I got the Egyptians to open up the border to let goods through, medicine and food, and, what’s happening is, I’m the guy that’s been able to pull together the Arab states to help, agree to help, the Palestinians with food and shelter.”
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Egypt borders Gaza and has been one of the key routes to move aid into the area via truck convoys through crossings along the northern border. Cairo halted truck convoys in May from entering Gaza, prompting Biden to call Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to try to convince him to resume deliveries, according to Axios.
“President Biden welcomed the commitment from President Al-Sisi to permit the flow of UN-provided humanitarian assistance from Egypt through the Karem Shalom crossing… President Biden also expressed his full commitment to support efforts to reopen the Rafah crossing with arrangements acceptable to both Egypt and Israel,” the White House said in a statement on May 24. “This will help save lives.”
But the Rafah border crossing has remained closed since their call as of last week, preventing hundreds of trucks packed with aid from entering Gaza in recent weeks and months, The Economist reported. Some of the food and supplies on the stalled trucks are having to be thrown out because they are going bad, drivers told Reuters.
“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,” truck driver Elsayed el-Nabawi told Reuters.
Egypt is still flowing some of the aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing along the Israeli-Egyptian border, but it is roughly only a third of what was being delivered in April, according to the Economist.
Biden directed the U.S. military in March to construct a floating pier off the coast of Gaza that could serve as a causeway for aid delivery via a maritime route, which was eventually built in May.
But problems, including unfavorable sea conditions and security concerns, plagued the pier almost immediately and hampered delivery operations. Even when fully operational, the pier could only transport about 150 trucks of aid per day in Gaza, while the United Nations currently estimates that 500 total trucks per day are needed to meet demand, according to NPR.
Only 425 aid trucks total have been offloaded from the pier since it was constructed in mid-May, according to Reuters.
The pier has been removed and is likely to be shut down permanently. It cost $230 million to build and operate but has only been fully operational for roughly 23 days in the two months it has been open.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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