US President Joe Biden announced that Egypt’s President Al-Sisi has consented to open the Rafah border crossing, enabling about 20 trucks to deliver humanitarian aid into Gaza.
As he set off for Israel, Biden told reporters on Air Force One that his main objective was to get humanitarian goods into Gaza and make sure there was a vehicle, a method for it to happen swiftly.
“And so, I have been on the phone for the last — I don’t know. We’ve been on the ground a while. That’s why we haven’t taken off — with El-Sisi. I don’t think I was on that long. It was about probably half an hour. And both — my team here was with me. And he agreed that what he would do is open the gate — to do two things: one, let up to 20 trucks through to begin with. Satterfield, my ambassador, is down there in — not down there — in Cairo now. He’s going to coordinate this. He has my authority to do what is needed to get it done,” Biden said in a press gaggle on board Air Force 1 at Ramstein base, Germany.
“When we took off, my goal was multifold, but basically to get humanitarian aid into Gaza and to get as many Americans out who wanted to get out — could get out as possible. And so, we got a commitment, as you know, from the — from the Israelis, including the unanimous vote of their war cabinet and the Prime Minister. And the second thing was that I wanted to make sure there was a vehicle, a mechanism, that this could happen quickly,” the US President said.
On being asked if he was talking about Rafah crossing, Biden responded by saying “yes”, and added, “They’re going to patch the road. They have to fill in potholes to get these trucks through. And that’s going to occur; they expect it’ll take about eight hours tomorrow. So, there may be nothing rolling through until — what’s today? I’m losing track of days. Thursday? Wednesday? Probably until Friday.”
He was further asked by reporters if Sisi agreed to open it up, to which the President said, “Yes. For this purpose. For this purpose. Not to allow a lot of people out, but to open it up for this purpose…for the trucks to be able to get through.”
“But here’s the deal: up to 20 trucks. This has been a very blunt negotiation I’ve had. And so, we want to get as many of the trucks out as possible. There’s, I guess, 150 or something there. Not all of them will go the first tranche. If there’s a second tranche — see how it goes. The commitment is: If, in fact, they cross the border, the U.N. is going to be on the other side distributing this material — offloading it and then distributing it, which is going to take a little time to set up, probably,” Biden said.
