Geneva, 19 October 2023(dpa/MIA) - The World Health Organization (WHO) expects the Rafah border crossing from Egypt into the Gaza Strip to be opened for desperately needed aid deliveries on Friday.

"Our trucks are loaded and ready to go. We are working with the Egypt and Palestine Red Crescent Societies to deliver our supplies into Gaza as soon as the Rafah crossing is opened, hopefully tomorrow," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in Geneva on Thursday.

The UN health agency has five trucks full of supplies in place in Egypt near Gaza, said Teresa Zakaria of the WHO's emergency relief office.

Another 40 tons of supplies is expected to arrive there by next week, Tedros said. Among them are medicines for the chronically ill, as well as materials to treat the wounded and other supplies to care for 300,000 people, including pregnant women, he said.

Emergency Relief Coordinator Mike Ryan also named anaesthetics, intravenous drips (IVs), painkillers, wound dressings and supplies for amputations as being en route to the Palestinian enclave.

Photo: MIA archive