Israel plans to open new north Gaza crossing for overseas, Jordanian aid

TEL AVIV — Israel will open a new land crossing into the Gaza Strip designed mainly to facilitate deliveries to Palestinians of aid from overseas or neighboring Jordan, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday.

Gaza has been under Israeli-blockade since Hamas won 2007 elections in the Strip. Since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, the enclave has been under even tighter restrictions. In the early days of the war, the Israeli government vowed not to let any food, water, or fuel into the territory, which is home to more than 2.3 million people.

A spiraling humanitarian crisis has drawn pressure on Israel from its Western and Arab partners to do more to facilitate the entry of aid, after months in which it sought to shift the burden to Egypt, which also has a border with Gaza.

Israel has gradually reopened two established cargo crossings and created a new crossing on its border, and last week announced it would admit Gaza-bound aid shipments at its southern port of Ashdod.

Briefing reporters, Gallant said a new crossing point would be created on the northern part of the Gaza border to reduce the time taken to truck in aid from Ashdod, 40 km (25 miles) away.

An aide said the crossing point would be between the Israeli village of Zikim and the Palestinian village of As-Siafa.

Gallant said the new crossing point would boost the delivery of aid brought in overland from Jordan, to Israel's east.

“These breakthroughs have a direct impact on the flow of aid. We plan to flood Gaza with aid," he said. "It will also streamline security checks and strengthen our work with international partners.”

Israel has also helped set up a maritime corridor for direct deliveries of aid to Gaza by sea and opened its airspace to foreign planes that have parachuted in aid for Palestinians.

There has been disagreement between Israeli and UN counts for the aid reaching Gaza, most of whose 2.3 million people are homeless, parts of which face famine and where civilian infrastructure is devastated and disease widespread.

While Israel claimed 419 trucks entered the Gaza on Monday, the main UN agency there, UNRWA, said only 223 trucks had come in on that day. The discrepancy comes from the point at which the trucks are counted. All trucks that enter Gaza are unloaded and reloaded again into different trucks.

OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke says the Israeli count is for the half-full trucks that enter the Strip, while the UN count is of the re-loaded, full trucks that then complete the delivery.

"Trucks that go in, screened by COGAT, are typically only half full. That is a requirement that they have put in place for screening purposes. When we count the trucks on the other side, when they have been reloaded, they are full," he said.