ARI SHAPIRO, host:
This is Morning Edition from NPR News. I'm Ari Shapiro.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. Renee Montagne is away this week. Let's get an update now on an effort to bring assistance to Gaza. Today, a convoy has been traveling across the Sinai desert on the eastern edge of Egypt. The destination is that strip of Palestinian land where Israel began a ground offensive over the weekend. Aid groups say many essential items are in short supply in Gaza. We do not know if the aid will be allowed across the border. A short time ago we reached NPR's Peter Kenyon, who's traveling with the convoy.
PETER KENYON: Hi Steve. I'm traveling with the convoy from the Egyptian Relief Committee. These doctors in particular and volunteers are from Alexandria. They were up at 2 a.m. loading their donated supplies, medicines, gurneys for stretchers, some very basic stuff, as well as some more specialized equipment. And then they drove through the night. We picked them up outside of Cairo, and we're now crossing the Sinai, getting close to the border. It has sent 10 tons of the medical supplies to the border already, this organization, and they also have a list of dozens of doctors who say they're willing to go into Gaza and work alongside the Palestinian doctors, but so far they're not being given permission to cross.
INSKEEP: If they don't have permission to cross, why are they continuing toward the border? Are they hoping to almost shame people, or just get lucky?
KENYON: They are occasionally letting cargo through, and how it works is a truck will cross from the Egyptian side into the no-man's-land of the border crossing area itself. It will be unloaded to a Palestinian truck, and those trucks will go on into Gaza. Now, that was working more or less all right with lots of delays up until the ground offensive started. And now that the Gaza strip has been cut and the internal transportation in Gaza is so difficult, it's not clear if these supplies get across the border into Gaza - into the Rafiah side of the Gaza strip - whether they'll make it to Gaza city or not.
INSKEEP: We're talking with NPR's Peter Kenyon. He's on board a relief convoy that is heading for Gaza from Egypt. And Peter, on this program in the last few days, we've been reminded more than once that the border is closed on the Egyptian side. And part of the reason for that is that Egypt is not particularly supportive of Hamas, which controls Gaza. Does this relief convoy suggest a little different point of view on the part of the Egyptians?
KENYON: I wouldn't say that, Steve. Egypt has sharpened its rhetoric over the weekend. The president, Hosni Mubarak, called the ground offensive a savage aggression that must be stopped immediately. But the actual facts on the ground, as we often say in this part of the world, have not changed that much in this case. Occasional cargo trucks are getting through. But people, be they doctors or others, and sometimes even patients getting out - some patients are being allowed out, but not nearly as many as could be. The border issue is still a very restrictive one and a very touchy one. The anger against Egypt is rising.
INSKEEP: Peter, I know you're moving there, but have you had an opportunity to talk with any of the people on this convoy and find out what motivates them to try this?
KENYON: I did. The first doctor I talked to actually turned out to be a pharmacist from Alexandria, and he's going along to volunteer and help unload. And if he does manage to get across, he'll do whatever he can. His wife is coming. If he gets stuck for several days, which he's actually anticipating, his wife's a pediatrician. There are, he says, dozens, probably, of doctors from around the world, from Europe, from Arab countries, camped out essentially at the Rafiah border crossing hoping for a chance to get across.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's Peter Kenyon on board a relief convoy as it nears the border with Gaza. Peter, thanks very much.
KENYON: You're welcome, Steve.