Photo by Max Bender on Unsplash
The EU said it welcomes the evacuation of a number of EU citizens and other foreign nationals, as well as injured persons via the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
The EU has tripled its humanitarian assistance to Gaza to €78 million, aiming to enable our partners to continue their invaluable humanitarian work.
The European Council Conclusions, adopted on 26 October, called for continued, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access and aid to reach those in need through all necessary measures including humanitarian corridors and pauses for humanitarian needs.
The EU has launched a Humanitarian Air Bridge operation in aid to the people affected by the crisis, facilitating the delivery of humanitarian cargo supplied by partners.
Since 16 October, 6 flights carrying over 263 tonnes of aid reached Egypt. The operations aim to facilitate the prepositioning of aid in support of fast delivery of assistance to people in need in Gaza.
Furthermore, the EU Civil Protection Mechanism has been activated to offer support for repatriation flights from Israel.
On Wednesday, EC president Ursula von der Leyen said, “I would like to warmly thank the Egyptian authorities for their admirable efforts to help foreign citizens, staff of international organisations and their families, including European citizens, to safely enter their country. It has been an important request we have made to our partners.”
“We must keep working together to further intensify our efforts to deal with the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
