CAIRO - Under the roar of military aircraft, workers were rushing to offload supplies at Egypt's El Arish airport as aid trickles into the stricken Gaza Strip after more than two weeks of war with Israel.
Planeloads of aid have been landing for days at El Arish, about 45 kilometres from the Rafah border crossing, the only route into Gaza after all Israeli checkpoints were closed following a shock Hamas assault on October 7.
But it was only over the weekend that the first supplies were allowed to reach Gaza.
Hamas militants stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7 and killed at least 1,400 people, most of them civilians, according to Israeli officials.
More than 4,650 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed across the Gaza Strip in relentless Israeli bombardments in retaliation for the attacks, according to the latest toll from the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza.
Three convoys of aid totalling about 50 trucks have cleared the Rafah crossing since Saturday, reaching a populace in dire need of food, water and medical supplies.
The United Nations estimates Gaza requires about 100 trucks a day to meet the needs of residents, almost half of whom are believed to have been displaced by Israel's bombing campaign.
In less than an hour on Sunday, two Qatari planes and one Indian aircraft, all carrying aid, touched down at El Arish, with scores of Egyptian Red Crescent workers scrambling to unload them.
UN aid chief Martin Griffiths has called the deliveries into Gaza a "small glimmer of hope" but warned its people would "need more, much more".
The United States has vowed a continued flow of aid under a deal brokered by President Joe Biden with Egyptian and Israeli leaders.
As the first Qatari aircraft departed El Arish on Sunday to return to Doha, the aid it brought stood carefully stacked and waiting on the runway's apron.