Live Update
From the Liveblog of
Sunday, January 19, 2025
UN says aid trucks entering Strip as part of surge under hostage-ceasefire deal

Trucks carrying aid for Gaza line up waiting near a checkpoint along a road in Egypt's northern Sinai peninsula near the city of Bir al-Abd on January 19, 2025 (Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect, the United Nations says.
“First trucks of supplies started entering” minutes after the ceasefire took effect on this morning, UN aid official Jonathan Whittall, interim chief of the UN’s OCHA aid agency for the Palestinian territories, says on X.
“A massive effort has been underway over the past days from humanitarian partners to load and prepare to distribute a surge of aid across all of Gaza,” he says.
A surge in aid to the Strip is part of the deal that will also see hostages freed and Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails.