RAFAH, Egypt, Jan 19, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip on Sunday after a long-awaited truce between Israel and Hamas came into effect, the United Nations said.

"First trucks of supplies started entering" minutes after the ceasefire took effect on Sunday morning, UN aid official Jonathan Whittall, interim chief of the UN's OCHA aid agency for the Palestinian territories, said on X.

"A massive effort has been underway over the past days from humanitarian partners to load and prepare to distribute a surge of aid across all of Gaza."

An Egyptian source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said "260 trucks of aid and 16 of fuel" moved into the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza and the Nitzana crossing between Egypt and Israel before entering Gaza.

On Saturday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, whose country mediated the deal along with Qatar and the United States, said it provides for "the entry of 600 trucks per day to the Strip, including 50 trucks of fuel".

On Sunday, AFP journalists saw hundreds of trucks carrying aid at the Rafah border crossing and around El-Arish, 50 kilometres (31 miles) west.

The vehicles were waiting to proceed to the Israeli crossings with Egypt at Kerem Shalom and Nitzana for screening before being allowed in to Gaza.

Some trucks returned empty after offloading their cargo, and around a dozen ambulances were also seen driving out of the main Rafah gate.

The Rafah crossing -- previously a vital entry point for aid -- has been closed since May, when Israeli forces seized it on the Palestinian side.

Palestinian Red Crescent spokesperson Nebal Farsakh told AFP Sunday that "the Israeli authorities control the process of receiving aid", adding that "the mechanisms for receiving these trucks and the crossing points through which they will enter remain unclear".

Humanitarian workers have warned of the monumental challenges that could impede aid operations, including the destruction of infrastructure that previously processed shipments.
Sunday's truce comes after more than 15 months of war sparked by Hamas's attack on October 7, 2023, the deadliest in Israeli history.

It follows a deal brokered by the three international mediators after months of negotiations, and comes on the eve of Donald Trump's inauguration as US president.

By December 1, nearly 69 percent of the Palestinian territory's buildings had been destroyed or damaged in the conflict, according to the United Nations.

Nearly all of Gaza's 2.4 million people have been displaced at least once.

The start of Sunday's truce saw many of them begin heading to their home areas through an apocalyptic landscape piled with rubble and destroyed buildings.