Gaza ceasefire incentivises major relief activity in Egypt

The ceasefire that has started in the Gaza Strip has set into motion a massive humanitarian movement in Egypt, where civil society organisations race against each other to come to support Palestinians who have survived 15 months of an Israeli genocidal war on Gaza.

The same organisations strive to put together the largest quantities of humanitarian and relief aid in preparation for sending them into Gaza through the Karem Abu Salem crossing, the border point specified for the entry of goods into Gaza in Egypt’s north-easternmost Sinai Peninsula which also shares borders with Israel.

This humanitarian relief activity is energised by a high wave of sympathy for the Palestinians of Gaza among ordinary Egyptians.

Volunteering wave

The Medical Association, the independent guild of the nation’s medical doctors, has started a volunteering campaign for its members who want to travel to Gaza to operate the Palestinian territory’s remaining hospitals.

A few of the coastal enclave’s hospitals are left partially operational in the aftermath of Israel’s 15-month genocidal onslaught, which especially targeted Gaza’s health sector under claims that Hamas operatives took refuge and stored weapons and rockets in the same hospitals.

Attacks against the hospitals have also claimed the lives of over 1,000 healthcare workers, causing Gaza’s healthcare sector to suffer an acute shortage of medical practitioners.

So far, around 2,000 doctors have applied to travel to Gaza, according to a senior member of the board of the association.

“We expect far more doctors to apply in the coming period, with everybody having a desire to participate in this great humanitarian effort,” Dr Ibrahim al-Zayat, a member of the board of the association, told The New Arab.

“The number of people volunteering will double and even triple once the first group of doctors travels to Gaza,” he added.

In organising this volunteering campaign, the Egyptian Medical Association coordinates the specialities most needed in Gaza with Palestinian health officials.

The same officials have already notified the association that Gaza is badly in need of orthopaedic surgeons, paediatricians, general surgeons, vascular surgeons, neurosurgeons, and acute care surgeons, along with emergency specialists, anaesthesiologists and critical care specialists.

To attract these specialities, the association has launched an online application for doctors who want to travel to Gaza.

Apart from organising a volunteering campaign, the Medical Association is trying to amass a large amount of humanitarian and relief aid in preparation for sending it into Gaza.

The aid, al-Zayat said, would include medicines, medical supplies, and food, all of which the people of Gaza need.

National effort

The relief effort made in Egypt for Gaza is not apparently limited to the civil society.

Ordinary people are also voluntarily taking part in the same effort, considering the mission of aiding the people of the war-ravaged neighbouring territory a national duty.

Egyptians from all walks of life and in all parts of this populous country are participating in the Gaza relief effort, bringing together hundreds of tonnes of food and supplies and sending them to the Palestinian enclave.

However, this is more than just an effort made in sympathy with the Palestinians of Gaza. At the decision-making level in Egypt, the same relief effort is viewed as a national security issue.

Egypt, which has been shuddering at the prospect of Israel turning Gaza into a place unfit for living, has taken all measures to prevent the displacement of the population of this neighbouring territory into Sinai, especially with numerous Israeli far-right politicians calling for the depopulation and annexation of Gaza.

Egypt warned against the prospect of Gaza’s depopulation and the transfer of its 2.3 million residents into Sinai repeatedly in the past year, citing the effect this might have on its 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

In October 2023, Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said once they are transferred to Sinai, the Palestinians of Gaza would stage attacks against Israel.

“This will make the peace in which we invested so much in the past years to evaporate,” the Egyptian president said.

Earlier this week, Sisi called for launching a major reconstruction campaign in Gaza to make the Palestinian territory habitable and fit for living for its people.

Official Egyptian fears from the displacement of Gaza’s population into Sinai can explain the alacrity with which Egypt carries out the Gaza relief effort.

On 19 January, around 300 trucks loaded with all types of supplies, including food; medical supplies; drinking water, and fuel, entered Gaza through the Karem Abu Salem crossing point.

On the following days since then, an average of 900 trucks entered the war-ravaged territory on a daily basis.

Egypt hopes this increase in the number of humanitarian assistance trucks will satisfy growing needs in Gaza, especially in its northern part, which has been totally devastated after months of Israeli attacks.

Egypt contributes most of the aid going into Gaza, but a sizeable amount of this aid also comes from other countries, landing in al-Arish Airport, tens of kilometres away from the border, before they are collected in a logistical hub close to the border and then sent into the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave.

Everybody participating

The Gaza relief mission is also attracting ordinary people who specify their time and effort to supporting the embattled territory.

This spirit of volunteering is most manifested—among many other organisations—at Mersal, an Egyptian NGO that specialises in medical support for the financially-incapable.

So far, around 10,000 people have applied to volunteer as part of Mersal’s Gaza relief activity, according Baher Mahmud, the head of Public Relations at the organisation.

“We cannot cope with the volunteering applications coming to us,” Mahmud told TNA.

“The amount of support we are receiving is just unimaginable,” he added.

The same support also includes a lot of finance coming to the organisation from ordinary people and businessmen who want to be part of the same relief activity.

Mersal has just auctioned a mug belonging to its founder that has sold for half a million Egyptian pounds (around $10,000).

The organisation has prepared 25 trucks loaded with food, medicines, clothes, tents and medical supplies.

The trucks are expected to be on the Egyptian side of the border by 22 January, in preparation for entering Gaza.

Mersal decides the types of humanitarian assistance it sends to Gaza in the light of the needs of ordinary people in the Palestinian territory.

It has received a list of needs from Gaza that lays stress on drinking water.

“This is why we have prepared a shipment of drinking water that will travel within the assistance convoy we are sending to Gaza,” Mahmud said.

“We will continue coordinating with the people of Gaza to send them whatever they need,” he added.