Cargo trucks loaded with food and humanitarian aid were waiting outside Karni commercial crossing into the Gaza Strip yesterday to relieve a food crisis challenging a future Hamas cabinet yet to be formed.

A group of trucks driver sat down on the floor near the wheels of their trucks, waiting for the crossing to open again on Tuesday to bring rice, flour and cooking oil to the 1.5 million Palestinians who were suffering a shortage of basic food due to a closure of the only cargo crossing between Israel and Gaza.

Darweesh Noor el Dein said that his truck has been waiting in the long line of trucks for several days before the crossing was opened on Monday, which only lasted for 40 minutes.

"Yesterday, they only let five trucks enter the closed crossing, and today we are sitting on the floor waiting for the crossing to open again," said the driver.

Director-General of the Palestinian Border Authority Salim Abu Safiah said that Israel would reopen the Karni crossing from 8:00(0600 GMT) in the morning till 16:00 (1400 GMT) in the afternoon on Tuesday.

He said that Israel would also open the Kerem Shalom crossing on borders between Egypt and Israel according to an agreement reached to end the humanitarian crisis.

"I hope that the Israelis will stick to their promises and will open Karni not for 40 minutes (as happened yesterday) because of Israeli political, governmental and internal disputes that we have no relations to," Abu Safiah said.

On Tuesday, 100 trucks of food and medicine would be transported into the strip through the Karni crossing, said the official.

Israel has shut down main crossings linking Gaza to the outside in the past few weeks, citing security reasons.

The continuous closure has led to a crisis of food supplies, which poses a challenge to the future Hamas government, said Palestinian economists.

"I think Hamas new government will not succeed within the coming few months simply because everything will be difficult, mainly the Palestinian living conditions and the increase of humanitarian crisis," said Khaled Mansour, a Palestinian economist from Gaza.

He believed the pressure on Hamas is to make it recognize the state of Israel and condemn violence.

However, he said that Hamas would unlikely recognize Israel and renounce violence as the group has not changed its political charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel.

"So what would happen next? Is Hamas going to succeed in the government by starving the Palestinian people and pay the bill of Hamas success in the legislative election?"

Hamas prime minister-designate Ismail Haneya presented a 24-member cabinet line-up to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday for approval.

The Hamas-led cabinet then will be submitted to the Palestinian Legislative Council for a vote of confidence before it is sworn in.

Although the cabinet is unlikely vetoed by the legislature as Hamas is the dominant power with 74 seats in the 132-member parliament, it has to deal with the ongoing food crisis, which could lead to a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza, warned John Ging, director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).