Russia Says Sent 25 Tonnes Of Humanitarian Aid For Gaza As War Rages

Russia said on Friday it had sent 25 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Egypt to be delivered to the Gaza Strip, which has been under near-total siege and relentless bombardment.

Since October 9, when Israel placed the Palestinian territory under a "total siege", only very limited quantities of basic human necessities like water, food and medicine have been allowed into Gaza. 

About 500 aid trucks have been allowed into the territory from Egypt over the past month, a number that had been the daily average before the war.

"A special aircraft of the Russian Emergencies Ministry delivered 25 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the Arab Republic of Egypt," Russia's emergency services said on social media. 

It published images of staff loading cargo onto an Il-76 plane in an airport in the central Russian city of Kazan, saying the shipment contained food and hygiene products, as well as clothing and portable cookers.

"The humanitarian cargo has already been handed over to representatives of the Egyptian Red Crescent Society. 

"Further Russian aid will be sent to the residents of the Gaza Strip," it said in the most recent post. 

This is at least the fifth aid shipment from Russia to Gaza, according to the emergency service's social media.

Fighting has raged since gunmen from the Islamist group Hamas poured over the Gaza border with Israel on October 7, taking about 240 hostages and leaving more than 1,400 dead, according to Israeli officials.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel retaliated with an aerial bombing and ground offensive that the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip says has killed more than 10,800 people, many of them children.

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