Video: Egyptian medical aid truck 'arrives in Gaza with 1% of expected delivery'
Video: Egyptian medical aid truck 'arrives in Gaza with 1% of expected delivery'
The video raises questions about Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's humanitarian pledges for the Gaza Strip.
2 min read
The lorry reportedly carried just 50 boxes of the antibiotic Meroperem, despite having an expected load of 5000 [AFP via Getty]
A video has emerged online purportedly showing an Egyptian truck carrying medical aid to Gaza loaded with only one percent of its expected delivery.
The footage, whose veracity The New Arab cannot confirm, raises questions about Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's humanitarian pledges to the besieged Palestinian territory.
Men in the video are seen opening the lorry, which is plastered with large images of President Sisi. One man says that it is a medicines lorry which has arrived from Egypt.
He explains that it is carrying a "some boxes" of the antibiotic Meropenem, listed on the World Health Organisation's List of Essential Medicines.
Another man remarks that the truck is carrying only 50 boxes, despite having expected a delivery of 5000.
وهي الدليل 😅
— آبو مآلك آلفلسطيني 🇵🇸 (@imi_rr) June 11, 2021
شاحنات السيسي التي وصلت لدعم غزة شاحنة 40 قدم تحتوي على 50 كرتونة فقط
والمفروض 5000 كرتونة
دعم ولا مش دعم يا متعلمين يا بتوع المدارس 😅 😤😤😤 pic.twitter.com/LshlPZiICn
In May, Sisi proudly announced $500 million for Gazan reconstruction efforts, as Israeli warplanes and artillery units unleashed a brutal bombing campaign on the coastal strip.
In addition to allowing for the passage of aid, Sisi also ordered its Rafah border crossing to open so that injured Gazans could be treated in hospitals in the Sinai province and elsewhere.
Israeli air raids crippled Gaza's already fragile health infrastructure, destroying or partially damaging around 450 buildings, including 6 hospital and 9 medical centres.
With Gaza’s only Covid-19 testing facility out of action and only 2% of its population receiving one dose of a vaccine, cases may now mushroom, leaving authorities unable to monitor the scale of transmission ahead of possible future waves of the virus.
Egypt, which operates the only Gazan border not controlled by Israel, has hosted separate Palestinian and Israeli delegations for talks after it brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas which ended the bombardment.
The $500 million figure pledged by Sisi has been dismissed by some observers as a ploy to leverage more political influence for the autocratic leader, both in Gaza and internationally.
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