Angelina Jolie visits Rafah as aid access to Gaza tightens

Angelina Jolie, the actor and former special envoy to the United Nations Refugee Agency, has visited the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing amid mounting concern over restrictions on humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

According to her representatives, Jolie travelled to Rafah on Friday as part of a humanitarian visit to Egypt, meeting aid workers from the Egyptian Red Crescent and other local organisations, as well as truck drivers waiting to deliver supplies into the enclave. She said she was "honoured" to meet volunteers working at the crossing.

In a statement, Jolie said she had spoken with humanitarian agencies "working hard to do their best to overcome the restrictions and challenges of delivering necessary aid into Gaza". She described walking through a warehouse "full of items that were denied entry, most of them medical".

"What needs to happen is clear," she said. "The ceasefire must hold, and access must be sustained, safe and urgently scaled up so that aid, fuel and critical medical supplies can move quickly and consistently, at the volume required." She added that "winter items and essential medical equipment should move without delay", warning that "every day of disruption costs lives".

Her visit comes as Israel said it would suspend the operations of dozens of international aid groups that failed to renew their registration, a move aid agencies say could endanger staff and worsen Gaza's already dire humanitarian conditions.

Jolie also met injured Palestinians receiving treatment in Egypt and is expected to meet Palestinian and Sudanese refugee families. She stepped down from her UN role in 2022 after more than 20 years, saying she wanted to focus on broader humanitarian causes.