RUSSIA today sent 27 tonnes of humanitarian aid for civilians in the Gaza Strip to be transported from Egypt, Moscow’s Emergency Situations Ministry said.

“A special plane has taken off from the airport at Ramenskoye near Moscow for El-Arish in Egypt. The Russian humanitarian aid will be handed over to the Egyptian Red Crescent to be sent to the Gaza Strip,” Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Ilya Denisov said in a statement.

Denisov said the aid comprised “wheat, sugar, rice (and) pasta”.

United States President Joe Biden yesterday unveiled a deal to allow desperately needed humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, where one million people have fled their homes amid withering Israeli air strikes.

After face-to-face talks in Israel and intense telephone diplomacy with Egypt, Biden said a limited number of trucks would be allowed to cross the shuttered Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza from tomorrow. – AFP, October 19, 2023.