LOC21:08
18:08 GMT
WASHINGTON, May 22 (KUNA) -- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Egypt Wednesday to exert all possible efforts to ensure the flow of humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza Strip.
During a hearing session at the US House of Representatives on the Department of State's budget programs, Blinken said "fighting near the Rafah crossing in southern Gaza had made the environment for providing assistance challenging".
"So we need to find a way to make sure that the assistance that would go through Rafah can get through safely, but we do strongly urge our Egyptian partners to do everything that they can on their end of things to make sure that assistance is flowing," he noted.
Since early May, Israeli occupation forces have taken control of Rafah Border Crossing from the Palestinian side when they started carrying out a military operation in Rafah City, south of the Strip, which has been sheltering more than 1.3 million Palestinians who left their homes since the Israeli occupation aggression on the Strip October 7.
Famine prevails across the Strip due to the Israeli occupation measures that impede the entry of humanitarian assistance into the Strip, in addition to Israeli settlers' acts aiming to hinder aid trucks to cross into Gaza through the West Bank. (end)
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