Israel’s prime minister’s office announced on Friday the approval of aid entry into the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom crossing. The decision aims to uphold Israel’s commitment to allowing the daily entry of 200 aid trucks, as outlined in a recent agreement brokered and executed last month following a hostage deal.
The Kerem Shalom crossing had been closed since an October 7 attack by Hamas, prompting aid deliveries to rely solely on Gaza’s Rafah crossing with Egypt. Israel argued that Rafah could accommodate only 100 trucks per day.
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan hailed the opening of the crossing as a “significant step,” expressing the White House’s hope that it would alleviate congestion and facilitate the smoother delivery and distribution of humanitarian aid through Rafah. The World Health Organization also welcomed the decision as “good news.”
Situated on the Egypt-Israel-Gaza border, Kerem Shalom serves as a crucial transit point for goods entering and leaving Gaza, offering faster transit than the Rafah passenger crossing a few kilometers away. While Israel had previously agreed to inspect trucks at Kerem Shalom, they were obliged to return to Rafah before entering Gaza from Egypt. Aid groups had advocated for direct entry at Kerem Shalom.
With Israel’s ongoing campaign in Gaza, the humanitarian situation in the besieged enclave has sharply deteriorated. The United Nations and other international bodies have warned of severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicines.
UN agencies note that continued bombardment has made aid distribution outside Rafah impossible, where the population, swollen to around 1 million, includes hundreds of thousands of refugees from northern areas.
