CAIRO, February 27. /TASS/. The Egyptian Air Force has airlifted at least 50 tons of various kinds of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the Al-Qahira Al-Ekhbariya TV channel reported citing senior Egyptian officials.

According to the channel, Egyptian aircraft successfully dropped ten tons of foodstuffs on northern Gaza. At least 45 tons of humanitarian aid were dropped, in addition to the northern areas, in the central parts of the enclave, with the active involvement of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Foodstuffs and urgent humanitarian aid are among the cargoes delivered to the Gaza Strip via the air bridge.

Egyptian officials have not yet commented on this information.

Earlier on Tuesday, the TV channel reported on the plans of the Egyptian authorities to set up an air corridor for delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza by aircraft in cooperation with Jordan and the UAE, but did not provide data on the volume of cargoes planned to be sent to the Palestinian enclave.

Typically, humanitarian aid is delivered to the Gaza Strip from Egypt by land, through the Rafah border crossing. Some countries, including the United States and Israel, have repeatedly accused the Egyptian authorities of allegedly impeding the delivery of humanitarian aid to the enclave. In response to these criticisms, Egyptian spokesman Ahmed Fahmy issued a special statement on February 9, in which he explained that his country opened the Rafah crossing from the very beginning of the escalation of tensions in Gaza, and that Israeli bombing was the only reason for the forced and temporary halt in the delivery of aid to the population of the Strip through the land crossing on the Egyptian border. Fahmy added that "once the shelling of the other side of the crossing ended, Egypt immediately undertook the necessary repairs and technical adjustments, facilitating the resumption of the flow of a substantial amount of humanitarian aid and assistance to the people of the Strip." He also recalled that 80% of the support delivered to Gaza is provided directly by the Egyptian government, the country's humanitarian, civil society organizations and Egyptians.

Tensions in the Middle East flared up again on October 7, 2023, after militants from the radical Palestinian group Hamas launched a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, killing residents of border communities and taking people hostage. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel announced a total blockade of Gaza and started carrying out retaliatory strikes on targets in the Strip, as well as on certain areas in Lebanon and Syria. On December 1, the Israeli army accused Hamas of violating a ceasefire that had taken effect on November 24 and resumed combat operations in the Gaza Strip.