Egypt Sends Engineering Machinery and Teams to Gaza

On Friday, Egypt sent machinery and brigades for the reconstruction of Gaza, a Palestinian territory that suffered millions of dollars in losses as a result of 11 days of indiscriminate Israeli bombardment.

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"Egyptian engineering machinery and brigades entered the Gaza Strip... through the Rafah border crossing to help remove rubble from destroyed houses," the news agency MENA reported.

The Egyptian cooperation aims to alleviate the situation of Palestinians, accelerate the resumption of daily activities, and start the physical reconstruction of the city. Images circulated on social media show cranes, bulldozers, and tractor-trailers crossing the border between Egypt and Gaza.

The dispatch came despite the fact that negotiations to entrench the truce reached on May 20 have not yet been concluded. Egypt is acting as a mediator in this negotiation process.

In these negotiations, however, Israel made it a condition that the Islamist group Hamas release two hostages and return the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.

So far, Egypt has pledged to donate US$500 million to finance the rehabilitation work through Egyptian companies.

Currently, Rafah is the only border crossing with Gaza that is not under Israeli control. For the past 20 days, Egypt has kept the crossing open to facilitate access for medicines, medical equipment, and ambulances for the evacuation of the wounded.