Israel approved Friday the “temporary” delivery of aid into Gaza via its Kerem Shalom border crossing, the prime minister’s office said, opening a new route for supplies as key backer the US urged more restraint in its all-out offensive against Hamas.
The Gaza Strip is facing dire humanitarian conditions after more than two months of war, but prior to Friday’s decision, all aid entering the territory had to pass through the Rafah crossing on its border with Egypt.
Kerem Shalom, which sits on Gaza’s border with Israel, recently began inspecting shipments of aid bound for the territory, but the trucks still had to travel to Rafah afterwards to enter.
Israel’s cabinet “approved today a temporary measure of unloading the trucks on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing” in order to increase the amount of aid getting into the territory, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
“The cabinet’s decision determines that only humanitarian aid arriving from Egypt will be transferred into the Gaza Strip this way,” it added.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who was wrapping up a visit to Israel on Friday, called the decision a “significant step”.
“President [Joe] Biden raised this issue in recent phone calls with Prime Minister Netanyahu, and it was an important topic of discussion during my visit to Israel over the past two days,” he said.
The United States hoped “this new opening will ease congestion and help facilitate the delivery of life-saving assistance”, Sullivan added.
Israel suffers heavy losses in Hamas ambush, faces diplomatic isolation
Israel suffers heavy losses in Hamas ambush, faces diplomatic isolation
The World Health Organization welcomed the announcement on Friday and called for the aid to be distributed throughout the embattled Palestinian territory.
“That’s, of course, very good news,” said Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territory, of the Israeli announcement.
But he added: “How can we make sure that these trucks can go everywhere in Gaza, and not just in the southern Gaza, but also to the northern Gaza?”
There were still three functioning hospitals in the north of the territory, he added, speaking by videoconference from Jerusalem.
“We’re talking about getting supplies to the people all over Gaza,” he said.