RAMALLAH, Palestine

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Saturday that an additional 30 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

"The Red Crescent teams have received today 30 trucks of humanitarian aid via the Rafah crossing,” it said in a statement.

It said three of the trucks are for the International Committee of the Red Cross, 19 for the UN Palestinian Refugees Agency (UNRWA) and the remaining eight for the Red Crescent Society sent from the Egyptian Red Crescent Society.

The statement noted that four trucks carried medicine and medical supplies, while the others contained food items, water and relief supplies.

It noted that the number of trucks that entered Gaza since Oct. 21 reached 451.

The Israeli army still bars the entry of fuel into Gaza.

Under the Israeli 16-year blockade on Gaza, 500 trucks of goods, including 45 fuel trucks used to enter Gaza on a daily basis. But that all stopped since the outbreak of fighting Oct. 7, leaving Gaza with a severe shortage of basic commodities, including badly needed fuel for hospitals.

The Israeli army has widened its air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip, which has been under relentless airstrikes since the surprise offensive by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, on Oct. 7.

“The death toll as a result of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since October 7 is 9,500, including 3,900 children and 2,509 women,” Salama Marouf, the head of the Gaza Media Office, said at a news conference.

Nearly 1,540 Israelis have been killed.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar