Aid enters Gaza through Israel's Kerem Shalom crossing for first time in war

Emily Rose
Updated ·3 min read
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By Emily Rose

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -The Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza opened on Sunday for aid trucks for the first time since the outbreak of war, officials said, a move intended to double the amount of food and medicine reaching the enclave.

The crossing had been closed after an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas and aid was being delivered solely through Gaza's Rafah crossing with Egypt, which Israel said could only accommodate the entry of 100 trucks per day.

As Israel's campaign in Gaza has gathered pace, the humanitarian situation in the besieged enclave has worsened dramatically with the United Nations and other world bodies warning of severe shortages of food, clean water and medicines.

Kerem Shalom, on the border of Egypt, Israel and Gaza, is one of the main transit points for goods in and out of the Palestinian enclave, allowing much faster transit than the Rafah passenger crossing a few kilometres away.

Israel approved the entry of aid last week.

"Starting today (Dec. 17), UN aid trucks will undergo security checks and be transferred directly to Gaza via Kerem Shalom, to abide by our agreement with the US," COGAT, the branch of military which coordinates humanitarian aid with the Palestinian territories, said in a statement. Asked if aid had crossed into Gaza, an Israeli official said yes.

A Palestinian border official confirmed Kerem Shalom was reopened earlier on Sunday in coordination with the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency and Israel. Part of the aid had arrived in Gaza by Sunday night, while the rest would be completed on Monday, the official said.

Two sources in the Egypt Red Crescent told Reuters that trucks had crossed Kerem Shalom on Sunday on their way into Gaza. One said there were 79 trucks.

The prime minister's office has previously said the opening would allow Israel to maintain its commitments to permit the entry of 200 aid trucks per day, agreed on in a hostage deal brokered and implemented last month.

Israel had already agreed to allow trucks to be inspected at Kerem Shalom but they had previously been obliged to return to Rafah to cross into Gaza from Egypt. Aid groups had been calling for them to be allowed in directly.

The aid may not quickly reach those in need.

Colonel Elad Goren, head of the civil department at COGAT, told Reuters humanitarian agencies had not increased their capacity to distribute aid to meet the demand from the influx of Gazans who have fled to the south of the enclave on Israeli advice.

"If the U.N. won't have the capacity to collect and to distribute, it doesn't matter how many crossings we will open," Goren said. "They cannot rely upon the same mechanism they had before the war.

"We adjusted ourselves," Goren said. "The UN unfortunately didn't."

Juliette Touma, communications director of the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency, pushed back on Sunday, saying on X, "you cannot deliver aid under a sky full of airstrikes."

(Reporting by Emily Rose in Jerusalem, Yusri Mohamed in Cairo, Nayera Abdallah in Dubai, Emma Farge in Geneva, Nidal Al Mughrabi in Cairo; Additional reporting by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Philippa Fletcher, Giles Elgood and Alexander Smith)