Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu/Getty Images
Israeli soldiers deploy to the Erez border with heavy weapons and military vehicles on February 29, 2024.
CNN
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Israel's Security Cabinet has approved the reopening of the Erez crossing between Israel and northern Gaza for the first time since the October 7 Hamas attack, an Israeli official told CNN on Thursday.
Israeli officials said the crossing would be opened to allow more humanitarian aid to flow into the blockaded Gaza Strip. The Cabinet also approved the use of Israel's Ashdod port to support the transfer of more aid to Gaza.
This comes as US President Joe Biden said in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that the humanitarian situation across the Gaza Strip has become unacceptable and urged Israel to take steps to address the crisis. This happened after warning them to face the consequences if they did not take action.
The Erez crossing, a pedestrian-only corridor, is one of the border points that Hamas fighters breached on October 7 when they launched a bloody attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages. It was two.
It remains unclear how the reopening will be implemented. Until now, the amount of aid allowed to cross Gaza's southern border has been inadequate compared to the scale of the human toll in the region.
The United Nations cautiously welcomed news of the reopening. “This is positive news, but of course we need to see how this is implemented. We need a humanitarian ceasefire and a massive influx of aid,” said Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary-General. said Thursday.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the Gaza Strip's main aid agency, remains uninvolved by Israel and has restricted access to parts of the enclave, particularly in the north, where the risk of famine is highest. . There have also been reports of people starving to death.
Since January, residents of northern Gaza have been forced to survive on an average of just 245 calories a day, according to Oxfam.
Thursday's announcement also comes amid growing international outrage over the Israeli attack that killed seven relief workers at the World Central Kitchen in the Gaza Strip. Israel accepts responsibility for the deaths but insists the attack was unintentional.
Israel's siege of Gaza has left at least 32,916 people dead since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, a spiral that has left nearly three-quarters of the population in northern Gaza suffering at devastating levels. This is causing a humanitarian crisis. A UN-backed report says hunger rates are decreasing.
The traditional entry of most critical aid supplies into the Gaza Strip by land remains severely restricted by Israel. Aid agencies have accused Israel of restricting the entry of aid into the war-torn territory, but Israel has said there is “no limit” to the amount of aid that can enter the country.
Before the war began, Israel restricted all access to Gaza by sea and air, and tightly controlled land traffic. He had two functional intersections with the enclave. Erez for the movement of people and Kerem Shalom for supplies.
Gaza also has a border with Egypt called Rafah, which is operated by Egyptian authorities. Although Israel does not directly control the crossing, it monitors all activity in southern Gaza.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant has announced that starting October 7, the Palestinian enclaves will be cut off from receiving electricity, food, water and fuel.
Aid began trickling in through Rafah in late October, and under pressure from the United States, Israel began allowing aid trucks to pass through Kerem Shalom in late December. But that rate was far below the 500 per day for commercial and aid trucks. war.
Currently, all 2.2 million people in Gaza do not have enough food, and according to the Integrated Food Security Stage Classification, half of the population is at risk of starvation or starvation “at any time between mid-March and May” It is expected to arrive in the north. (IPC).
World Central Kitchen, which was at the center of a much-touted new maritime corridor from Cyprus, has suspended its operations in the Gaza Strip along with at least two other aid groups after its staff were killed in an Israeli airstrike. It's stopped.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
