GENEVA: UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said Thursday he saw promising signs that the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel into the Gaza Strip might be opened soon to allow aid in.
“We’re still negotiating, and with some promising signs at the moment, access through Kerem Shalom… that that may be able to open soon,” Griffiths told a press conference in Geneva.
The Kerem Shalom checkpoint between Israel and the Gaza Strip was responsible for 60 percent of goods getting into the besieged territory before the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Currently only the Rafah border crossing with Egypt is open.
“We have been arguing for the opening of Kerem Shalom – and not just as an opening to allow trucks to go through Rafah and then up into Gaza, but to go straight through Kerem Shalom up into the northern parts of Gaza, or where the need is greatest,” Griffiths said.
Displaced Gazans cram into Rafah despite fears of attack
“If we get that – the first miracle we’ve seen for some weeks, but it will be a huge boost to the logistical process… it will change the nature of humanitarian access.”
Mass civilian casualties in the war have sparked global concern, heightened by dire shortages caused by an Israeli siege that has seen only limited supplies of food, water, fuel and medicines enter Gaza.
Griffiths added that there were also discussions going on over the possibility of driving aid to the Gaza Strip from Jordan, which borders Israel and the occupied West Bank.
“I have a representative, as we speak, in Jordan, already lining up the potential deliveries of aid by land from Jordan which could come straight through from Jordan over the Allenby Bridge, straight to Kerem Shalom,” he said.
Israel declared war on Hamas after the group’s October 7 attack that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities, and saw around 240 hostages taken into Gaza.
The latest toll from the Hamas-run government media office said 16,248 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, had been killed.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and free 138 hostages still held after scores were released during a short-lived truce.
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