A day after a planned swap of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages was delayed over claims by Hamas that Israel was blocking aid from reaching the northern part of the Gaza Strip, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said Sunday that 100 trucks of food, water, emergency medical supplies, medications and other items had arrived there.

The head of Egypt’s state information service, Diaa Rashwan, said in a statement Sunday afternoon that the aid convoy included two trucks loaded with fuel and two carrying cooking gas.

Another Egyptian official said Israeli forces had blocked aid trucks from heading north Saturday until mediators from Egypt and Qatar, who had helped broker the deal, intervened, but neither Egypt nor Hamas reported obstacles to the aid Sunday.

The Israeli military said on social media that 200 aid trucks had entered Gaza.

Combined with the 61 trucks’ worth of aid that reached northern Gaza Saturday, it was the first significant help to arrive there since the war began on Oct. 7 after Hamas’ deadly incursion into Israel. The Israeli ground invasion that followed cut Gaza’s north off from the south and gradually forced hospitals out of service, leaving thousands of people desperate for food, drinking water, fuel and medical care.

Government ministries, the UN, aid groups and families alike largely lost contact with colleagues and relatives in the north.

New York Times News Service