RAFAH, Egypt, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Amidst the scorching summer heat, Egyptian driver Mohammed Abdel-Fattah waits anxiously to deliver his truck, loaded with medical and humanitarian aid, into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing, which has been closed since Israel occupied its Palestinian side in early May.
"I arrived one week after the crossing was closed," Abdel-Fattah, the 50-year-old truck driver from Cairo, told Xinhua as he sat next to his truck near the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.
On May 7, the Israeli army announced the imposition of "operational" control over the Palestinian side of the crossing, a main gateway for delivering humanitarian and relief assistance into the enclave.
"We sleep in our trucks and we suffer from the high summer temperatures, but we still hope to cross into Gaza to deliver the aid to its people," Abdel-Fattah said.
His truck carries mainly medical supplies and tents. However, many of his peers, transporting food, have seen their goods spoil in the heat.
"Many food truckloads got rotten as they were exposed to heat and sun," he said. "My heart is broken as food is getting rotten here while thousands of Palestinians behind these walls are starving."
Khaled Zayed, head of the Egyptian Red Crescent Branch in North Sinai, confirmed to Xinhua that the ongoing closure of the Rafah crossing caused severe damage to the aid piled up on the Egyptian side due to the high temperatures.
"Hundreds of trucks loaded with food, medical, and humanitarian supplies have been waiting at the Egyptian side of the crossing for more than two months now," Zayed lamented. "Large quantities of food aid expired too after waiting on the Egyptian side for months."
According to Zayed, more than 500 trucks are currently waiting at the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, with large quantities of aid kept in warehouses in the nearby Egyptian city of Arish.
"The Egyptian Red Crescent has started recently to distribute large amounts of aid to Palestinians stranded in Egypt, as well as patients and injured Palestinians who are receiving treatment in hospitals in Egypt's North Sinai Province," Zayed told Xinhua.
The Egyptian Red Crescent has recently stopped receiving aid from various countries due to the closure of the Rafah crossing. Zayed said that many donor agencies have been notified by the Red Crescent to hold off sending aid temporarily until the crisis is resolved.
Amjad Shawwa, the director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network, said the number of trucks carrying aid to the Gaza Strip has dropped by 60 percent since Israel began its military operation in Rafah in April and occupied the Rafah crossing in May.
"Before the closure of the Rafah crossing, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip was catastrophic, as only around 200 trucks crossed into Gaza for one day," Shawwa told Xinhua, adding that Israel is imposing more restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
"There is a rapid spread of famine, thirst, epidemics, and diseases, especially among children and women since the closure of the Rafah crossing," he bemoaned.■
