The Israeli army and the Egyptian Red Crescent said aid vehicles from Egypt entered the Gaza Strip on Sunday under a new US-brokered deal to reopen a vital rescue route. humanitarian aid.
Egypt has blocked aid from entering the enclave through its territory since Israel seized the Rafah crossing – which provides access to southern Gaza – in early May. The two sides have blamed each other for the closure. that border gate, even as aid poured into Egypt.
Following U.S. pressure, Egypt announced Friday that it had agreed to redirect trucks through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom border crossing, about two miles from the Rafah border crossing, as a temporary measure.
In a statement, the Israeli military said some 126 trucks from Egypt carrying food, fuel and other supplies entered the Gaza Strip through Kerem Shalom on Sunday. Ahmad Ezzat, an official with the Egyptian Red Crescent, said the trucks were inspected by Israeli officials.
The amount of food, water and medicine reaching Gazans has dropped sharply since the war began nearly eight months ago. As a result, the United Nations and aid groups have warned of widespread famine in this land and called on Israel to open more routes for aid to enter. But in recent weeks, aid shipments to Gaza have come through two main soil pipes has been interrupted.
One of those crossings is Kerem Shalom, located at the intersection of Gaza, Israel and Egypt. Israel temporarily closed Kerem Shalom a few weeks ago after a Hamas rocket attack there killed four of its soldiers. Since then Israel has allowed it some aid enters Gaza through Kerem Shalom, but its distribution is a point of contention. Israel says aid agencies must distribute aid. But the agencies say Israeli military activity in southern Gaza has made their work nearly impossible.
The other main aid gateway is between Gaza and Egypt, at Rafah. Israeli forces captured the crossing as part of their initial advance on the city on the night of May 6. Since then, Israeli, Egyptian and Palestinian officials have been unable to reach an agreement resumption of aid shipments there.
Israel has come under international pressure to find a way to reopen Rafah to avert an even greater humanitarian disaster in Gaza. On Friday, the World Court ordered Israel “to open the Rafah crossing to provide unhindered aid.” Israel pledged to do so but said it would also “prevent terrorist organizations from controlling sea crossings.”
When the Rafah border crossing closed, the Egyptian government initially refused to send aid trucks to Kerem Shalom, in what US and Israeli officials called an attempt to pressure Israel to withdraw from operations in Rafah. .
On Friday, Egypt and the United States announced that Cairo has provisionally agreed allowing food, basic supplies and fuel to move from its territory into Gaza through Kerem Shalom. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of Egypt, emphasized that the measure was only a temporary measure until “a new legal regime” could be found on the Gazan side of the Rafah border crossing.
It is still unclear when the Rafah border crossing will reopen to receive aid. According to the White House, US officials are expected to travel to Cairo this week to “support efforts to reopen the Rafah crossing”.
