A convoy of 106 trucks carrying humanitarian aid crossed into Gaza through the Rafah crossing yesterday, an Egyptian official confirmed. This included five trucks carrying fuel.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced yesterday that it had “temporarily approved the unloading of trucks on the Gaza side of the ‘Kerem Shalom’ crossing instead of returning them to Rafah” on Egypt’s border with Gaza.
Kerem Shalom is one of two Israeli crossings where humanitarian aid trucks have been screened in recent days, but not allowed to enter Gaza directly. Instead, they were sent back to Rafah.
“As part of the agreement on the release of our abductees, Israel undertook to deliver food and humanitarian aid from Egypt to the civilian population in Gaza, in the amount of 200 trucks per day,” the announcement states. “The Rafah crossing can only pass 100 trucks a day during the Israeli security check that is already being carried out today at the ‘Kerem Shalom’ crossing,” the announcement added.
“Until today, these trucks had to return to the Rafah border crossing, which created congestion and prevented the implementation of the agreement between Israel and the United States (U.S.),” it is stated in the announcement.
The announcement also states that only humanitarian aid from Egypt will be delivered to the Gaza Strip in this way.