Jerusalem: Israel has approved the entry of humanitarian aid through the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office has announced.
The United Nations has been stressing that hunger is worsening across the besieged Gaza strip and at least half of Gaza’s population is starving.
As part of the hostage release agreement, Israel committed to transfer 200 truckloads per day of food and humanitarian aid from Egypt for the civilian population in Gaza, read the statement, noting the Rafah crossing has the capacity for only 100 trucks a day, with the Israeli security screening taking place at the Kerem Shalom crossing, Xinhua news agency reported.
Until Friday, these trucks were required to return to the Rafah crossing, “causing heavy congestion and preventing the implementation of the agreement between Israel and the United States,” according to the statement.
To abide by the terms of the agreement, the Israeli cabinet approved on Friday “a temporary measure” of unloading the trucks on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, instead of having them return to Rafah crossing, it added.
The statement stressed that the cabinet’s decision determines that only humanitarian aid arriving from Egypt will be transferred into the Gaza Strip this way.
According to the statement, “the United States has committed to pay for the upgrade of the Rafah crossing as soon as possible to enable the transfer of humanitarian aid only via Rafah crossing after passing Israeli security screening.”
Journalists on the ground have also reported a shortage of food supplies in the war-torn Gaza Strip, with some reporting the death of a young girl due to starvation in Khan Younis, south of Gaza, 20 km away from Rafah crossing. The Israeli government allowed the passage of humanitarian aid to Gaza through the Rafah crossing, however, reports suggest that the one checkpoint was insufficient.
“The Rafah crossing between southern Gaza and Egypt is the only point where a limited amount of aid is allowed to enter the territory, and the bottlenecked frontier has been unable to cope with the volume of vehicles heading in,” reported Al Jazeera.
