The Egyptian city of Arish is witnessing, on Saturday, "final preparations" to bring humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing, in the presence of two Egyptian ministers.

The official Egyptian News Agency reported that the Minister of Health, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, and the Minister of Social Solidarity, Maya Morsi, arrived at El-Arish Airport on Saturday morning on a visit to North Sinai Governorate (east).

The visit aims to "ensure the readiness of hospitals to receive the injured from the Gaza Strip, and to follow up on the progress of the final preparations for the entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip."

On Friday evening, Cairo News Channel reported that "a large number of aid trucks were lined up in front of the Rafah land crossing in preparation for their entry into the Gaza Strip."

She explained that "the aid trucks carry tens of thousands of basic food supplies to the Gaza Strip."

The city of Arish and its airport in North Sinai Governorate are a point of reception and management for relief aid to Gaza coming from all over the world.

The entry of aid was disrupted after Israel occupied the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip in May 2024.

Earlier on Saturday, the Qatari Foreign Ministry and the Israeli army announced that the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip would go into effect at 8:30 (06:30 GMT) on Sunday morning.

On Friday evening, the private Cairo News Channel reported, quoting an informed source whose identity was not revealed, that an international meeting hosted by Cairo had ended with an agreement to form an operations room that includes Egypt, Palestine, Qatar, the United States, and Israel to follow up on the implementation of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

Last Wednesday, Qatar announced the success of the mediators’ efforts (Doha, Cairo and Washington) in reaching an agreement to cease fire in Gaza and exchange prisoners, to be implemented tomorrow, Sunday. It explained that the first phase of it will last for 42 days and includes the release of 33 Israeli detainees in exchange for an undisclosed number of Palestinian prisoners, but it is estimated in the hundreds.

With American support, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza since October 7, 2023, leaving more than 157,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children and the elderly, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.

On November 21, the International Criminal Court issued two arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza.