By Al-Fassel | 2023-12-18

The Kerem Shalom crossing between Gaza and Israel opened for aid trucks on Sunday (December 17), for the first time since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, officials said.

A total of "79 trucks began entering today," an Egyptian Red Crescent official said Sunday, according to Reuters.

On Friday, Tel Aviv approved the "temporary" delivery of aid to Gaza through Israel's Kerem Shalom crossing, which links Gaza, Israel and Egypt.

"This decision will increase the amount of aid entering the Gaza strip where it will continue to be met by international aid organizations that will deliver it to the people of Gaza," Col. Moshe Tetro, head of the Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA) for Gaza, said in a post on X Sunday.

"This in order to abide by the terms of our agreement with the United States," he said.

United Nations (UN) aid trucks will undergo security checks and be transferred directly to Gaza via Kerem Shalom, said COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs.

The Israeli 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, as per a hostage deal brokered and implemented last month, Reuters reported.

The Gaza strip is facing dire humanitarian conditions after more than two months of war, during which aid has been allowed to trickle in only through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

Egypt began to increase aid deliveries to Gaza on December 12, following Israel's decision to open the Kerem Shalom crossing as an additional inspection point for aid.

Until Sunday, Kerem Shalom was not operating as a crossing point, but rather as a checkpoint, where aid deliveries are inspected before heading to Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt (about 3km away).

Kerem Shalom was used for the transfer of 60% of goods entering the Palestinian territory until October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, triggering the ongoing war.

Before the opening of Kerem Shalom, the Nitzana border post had been processing all international aid from the Rafah border crossing before allowing it into Gaza.

A 'significant step'

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan called the decision to re-open Kerem Shalom a "significant step" as he returned from a trip to Israel and the West Bank.

"President [Joe] Biden raised this issue in recent phone calls with Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, and it was an important topic of discussion during my visit to Israel over the past two days," he said Friday.

The United States hopes "this new opening will ease congestion and help facilitate the delivery of life-saving assistance," Sullivan added.

A World Health Organization representative said the announcement was "very good news."

"The fast implementation of this agreement will increase the flow of aid," said spokesman Stephane Dujarric. "A humanitarian ceasefire will increase the distribution of that aid across Gaza even more."

Aid distribution had largely stopped in most of Gaza, except on a limited basis in the Rafah area, according to the UN.

The UN estimates that 1.9 million of the 2.4 million Gazans have been displaced. International aid groups have expressed concern that the territory will soon be overwhelmed by starvation and disease.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) on December 5 pledged more than $21 million in new humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza and the West Bank.

The new aid builds on the $100 million in US humanitarian assistance announced by President Biden on October 18.