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Trucks carrying desperately needed humanitarian aid for the besieged and bombardedÌýGazaÌýStrip started passing into the Rafah border crossing from Egypt on Saturday, a security source and an Egyptian Red Crescent official told AFP.

Egyptian state television showed several trucks entering the gate on the 15th day of the war in Gaza, a Palestinian enclave of 2.4 million people.

Israel has been bombing the besieged strip since Hamas launched a surprise attack on 7 October.

The armed group stormed into Israel from the Gaza Strip and killed 1,400 people, also taking more than 200 people hostage.

Israel's fierce and indiscriminate retaliatory bombardment has killed more than 4,100 people in the enclave, over 1,500 of them children.

It has also imposed a total siege on Gaza and cut off supplies of water, electricity, fuel and food, creating chronic shortages.

Rafah is the only route into Gaza that is not controlled by Israel, which agreed to allow aid in from Egypt following a request from its top ally the United States.

Twenty trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent, which is responsible for delivering aid from various UN agencies, entered the Egyptian terminal, an AFP correspondent said.

An AFP journalist on the Palestinian side of the crossing saw 36 empty trailers entering into the terminal and heading towards the Egyptian side, where they were to be loaded with the incoming aid.

Four ambulances, two UN vehicles and two Red Cross vehicles were also seen heading into the terminal.

Cargo planes and trucks have been bringing humanitarian aid to the Egyptian side of Rafah for days, but so far none has been delivered to Gaza.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Friday visited the Egyptian side of the crossing to oversee preparations for the aid delivery.

"These trucks are not just trucks, they are a lifeline," he said.

"They are the difference between life and death for so many people in Gaza."