A UN-brokered deal was struck on Thursday that was expected to allow trucks carrying humanitarian aid to enter Gaza from Egypt, two officials said, although the details of how and when the desperately needed food and medicine would be delivered were not immediately known.

Gazans, already living under a blockade by Israel and Egypt, have been increasingly desperate since Israel responded to Hamas’s brutal October 7 terrorist attack with airstrikes and a “complete siege” of the enclave.

Nearly half the population has been displaced, according to the United Nations, and dwindling essential resources threaten disaster for its more than two million residents.

The deal includes the UN flag being raised at the Rafah crossing and international observers inspecting aid trucks before they enter Gaza, to satisfy a demand by Israel, according to the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the news.

Adding to pressure on Israel to ease the crisis in Gaza, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain visited Tel Aviv and said, after meeting with President Isaac Herzog, that they had “agreed on the importance of getting urgent humanitarian support to ordinary Palestinians in Gaza who are also suffering”.

Previous reports of imminent agreements to ease the backup at Gaza’s border with Egypt — both for people and aid — had failed to materialise.

Egypt said it would allow 20 aid trucks into the enclave, according to US President Joe Biden, but the timing is unclear. Hopes are high that the aid trucks would be able to cross into Gaza on Friday, according to European Union officials.

As diplomats continued to hammer out logistics, roads were being repaired on Thursday so that large trucks loaded with aid would be able to pass through the crossing, according to a person briefed on the situation.

Israel’s northern border with Lebanon remained tense as Hezbollah and the Israeli military continued clashes there. With Israel threatening a ground invasion of Gaza, many in the region fear that the fighting with Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, could escalate into a war involving Lebanon, too.

Israel’s military said it had been in contact with the families of 203 people taken hostage in the October 7 attack, raising by four the number of people believed to be held in Gaza.

The military also said that it had caught a fighter from Hamas trying to return to Gaza, leaving open the possibility that others were still in Israel. Daniel Hagari, a military spokesman, said soldiers would “continue combing the area” for other members of the group.

New York Times News Service