Israel Opens Gaza Aid Crossing, Humanitarian Groups Say It's Insufficient
Displaced Palestinians from Beit Hanoun following Israeli army evacuation orders sit on the side of a main road upon their arrival in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 12, 2024. ©Omar AL-QATTAA/AFP

Israel announced the opening of an additional aid crossing into Gaza Tuesday, on the eve of a US deadline to boost relief deliveries, but aid agencies said it was not enough.

Gaza has been in the grips of a dire humanitarian crisis since the outbreak of war following Hamas's unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.

The United States last month warned Israel to improve the humanitarian conditions in Gaza or risk a cut to its military support.

A day before the deadline, the Israeli military said it opened the Kissufim crossing "as part of the effort and commitment to increase the volume and routes of aid" to Gaza.

"Food, water, medical supplies, and shelter equipment" were delivered to central and southern Gaza, the army said in a joint statement with COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories.

The army published video showing lorries loaded with sacks and pallets entering Gaza.

But the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and eight humanitarian groups said Israel was still not doing enough to get aid in.

The eight organisations including Oxfam and Save The Children said Israel "failed to comply" with US demands -- "at enormous human cost for Palestinian civilians in Gaza".

"The humanitarian situation in Gaza is now at its worst point since the war began in October 2023," they said in a joint statement.

 

Aid at 'lowest level'

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin warned Israel last month it had 30 days to ramp up aid deliveries to Gaza or risk losing some military assistance from its chief arms supplier.

The US letter, dated October 13, was sent ahead of the US presidential election won by Donald Trump, who has promised to give Israel freer rein.

Government spokesman David Mencer said Tuesday that Israel took the letter "extremely seriously" and was "willing to get as much aid as possible through".

But the previous day, a senior military official said Israel had "a responsibility to make sure that terrorism does not enter Gaza under the auspices of aid", adding that the army had a few hours earlier found "a bag of flour filled with Kalashnikovs and ammunition" in a humanitarian convoy.

Asked Tuesday about whether there were signs the situation had improved ahead of the US deadline, Louise Wateridge, an UNRWA emergencies officer, said "aid entering the Gaza Strip is at its lowest level in months".

The eight aid groups called on "the US government to make an immediate determination that Israel is in violation of its assurances".

The situation is at its worst in northern Gaza, where a UN-backed assessment at the weekend said famine was imminent.

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