Israel to allow aid into Gaza

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 after weeks of pressure.

The Gaza Strip is facing dire humanitarian conditions after more than two months of war, but before 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.

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“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 trip 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 hopes “this new opening will ease congestion and help facilitate the delivery of life-saving assistance”, Sullivan added.

A World Health Organization representative said the announcement was “very good news”, while a spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres also welcomed Kerem Shalom’s reopening.

“The fast implementation of this agreement will increase the flow of aid,” said spokesman Stephane Dujarric. “A humanitarian ceasefire will increase the distribution of that aid across Gaza even more.”