Egypt's Red Crescent dispatched its 269th aid convoy to Gaza in the early hours of Tuesday, 1 September 2026, carrying 3,750 tonnes of food, medical supplies and fuel, according to Ahram Online. The shipment pushed the cumulative total of aid Egypt has funnelled into the territory since October 2023 past one million tonnes. Hours later, Israeli airstrikes on the Al-Katiba area west of Gaza City killed three Palestinians and wounded eight others, a reminder of how fragile the ceasefire remains.
The convoy, run under the Egyptian Red Crescent's "Zad Al-Ezza: From Egypt to Gaza" initiative, carried its cargo in three categories: 1,266 tonnes of food parcels and flour, 1,135 tonnes of relief and medical supplies, and 1,349 tonnes of fuel for hospitals and other vital facilities. It followed the 268th convoy a day earlier, which carried similar categories of aid, Ahram Online reported.
More than 75,000 Egyptian Red Crescent volunteers have taken part in the Gaza aid operation, the organisation said. The one-million-tonne cumulative threshold spans nearly three years of war that started in October 2023 and a ceasefire that took effect in October 2025 but has not stopped Palestinian casualties in Gaza. The Zad Al-Ezza initiative under which the convoy runs was launched on 27 July 2025 as part of Egypt's continuing humanitarian response to the war and deteriorating living conditions in the strip, Ahram Online reported.
The convoy by the numbers
Ahram Online, citing the Egyptian Red Crescent, broke down the 269th convoy's cargo and the operation's running totals as follows:
- 3,750 tonnes of total aid in the 269th convoy, dispatched 1 September 2026
- 1,266 tonnes of food parcels and flour
- 1,135 tonnes of relief and medical supplies
- 1,349 tonnes of fuel for hospitals and vital facilities
- More than 1,000,000 tonnes delivered to Gaza since October 2023
- More than 75,000 Egyptian Red Crescent volunteers involved in the operation
Strikes in Gaza City hours after the convoy departed
The convoy's departure did not pause hostilities. Israeli airstrikes hit the Al-Katiba area west of Gaza City after an armed group attempted to target a Palestinian Internal Security Service official, arriving on motorcycles and opening fire before clashes erupted, according to Ahram Online. Field sources documented more than 12 airstrikes in the area.
Al-Shifa Hospital director Mohammed Abu Salmiya confirmed that three Palestinians, two children and a woman, were killed and eight others wounded in the strikes, Ahram Online reported. Palestinian security sources accused Israeli forces of providing air cover for an armed group's withdrawal from the area. Separately on the same day, a girl named Israa Al-Hissi was killed by gunfire near Deir Al-Balah, and two others were wounded, according to the same report.
Israeli forces also deployed a large number of military vehicles to the area known as the "New Road" and closed Salah Al-Din Road, while other vehicles advanced into eastern Abu Al-Ajeen through the morning, Ahram Online reported. The airstrikes destroyed several vehicles and tents belonging to displaced Palestinians and damaged nearby homes, the report said.
A Hamas security official captured in a separate raid
In a second incident on 1 September, video published by Al Jazeera showed a raid in Gaza City during which the chief of Hamas's internal security apparatus, Muein al-Arabid, was captured, according to a live blog maintained by The Times of Israel. Israel's military and the Shin Bet internal security service said the raid was carried out by the security agency's special forces.
Footage published by Al Jazeera shows the raid in Gaza City earlier today, during which the chief of Hamas's internal security apparatus, Muein al-Arabid, was captured. — Times of Israel liveblog
The video showed a van arriving at the scene as the incident was already under way, with gunfire heard coming from forces inside the vehicle, the live blog reported.
Egypt's role in a fraying truce
Egypt has positioned itself as the physical channel for Gaza's humanitarian pipeline throughout the war, coordinating convoy dispatches through the Egyptian Red Crescent as the ceasefire that took effect in October 2025 remains under strain. Tuesday's events captured the contradiction at the heart of that role: a record cumulative aid total delivered on the same day that an Israeli raid and a separate round of strikes killed civilians and captured a senior Hamas security official in Gaza City, exactly the kind of episode that keeps testing whether the truce holds.
Egypt has run the Zad Al-Ezza convoys since the initiative launched on 27 July 2025, coordinating shipments through the Egyptian Red Crescent even as the ceasefire has come under continued strain. The convoy count, now at 269, and the volunteer figure of more than 75,000 are the clearest public measures the Egyptian Red Crescent has offered of the scale of that effort.
Combined, Tuesday's toll came to four Palestinians killed, three in the Al-Katiba clashes and Israa Al-Hissi near Deir Al-Balah, and at least ten wounded, based on the tallies reported by Ahram Online. Add the capture of Hamas's internal security chief in a separate raid documented by Al Jazeera, and Tuesday counts among the more eventful days of the ceasefire period even as Egypt's aid pipeline kept moving on schedule. For Cairo, the two threads sit side by side in the same 24 hours: a convoy of trucks moving into Gaza, and a rising death toll on the other side of a ceasefire line still under strain.
