Thousands of tonnes of aid bound for Gaza remained on the Egyptian side of the border after US President Joe Biden struck a deal with Egypt and Israel to allow relief in.

Biden said on Wednesday that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had agreed to “let up to 20 trucks through, to begin with” to the heavily bombarded Gaza Strip, starting Friday, giving authorities time to repair roads.

Sisi — whose spokesperson said the pair had agreed on “the sustainable delivery of aid” — has maintained that Egypt “did not close” the border, but that four rounds of Israeli air strikes on the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing have forced it shut.

An eyewitness told AFP that “150 trucks have been waiting at Rafah” — the only passage in and out of Gaza not controlled by Israel — in addition to those in the nearby Egyptian city of El Arish, where planes full of relief supplies have been arriving.