The Israeli army announced Friday that a new crossing point had opened with the northern Gaza Strip welcoming the first trucks of humanitarian aid to improve access to Palestinian civilians trapped in the fighting. “The first food aid trucks entered Gaza yesterday (Thursday, editor’s note) through the new northern crossing point” located in the south of Israel, the Israeli body responsible for Palestinian civil affairs (Cogat) declared on X.
Most trucks enter through the Rafah crossing point
A Cogat video accompanying this message shows military vehicles and at least one truck loaded with pallets entering the Gaza Strip. “The trucks were subjected to extensive security checks by security authorities from the Land Crossings Authority of the Ministry of Defense” before being escorted by the Israeli army to the new crossing point, said the army in a separate statement.
In response to requests from AFP, Israeli authorities did not reveal the number of trucks that entered on Thursday, nor the exact location of the new crossing point, which the media located near the Israeli town of Zikim, not far from Erez a crossing point currently closed. For months, humanitarian organizations and foreign chancelleries, including the United States, Israel’s main ally, have urged the country to open direct supply routes to the northern Gaza Strip, where the humanitarian crisis is the most acute.
For now, most trucks enter through the Rafah crossing point on the border between Egypt and Gaza, at the southern end of the Palestinian territory ravaged for more than six months by the war between Israel and the Islamist movement. Palestinian Hamas. To increase aid arrivals in northern Gaza, the first area where Israel launched its offensive after the Hamas attack on October 7, the army said on April 5 that the Erez checkpoint would be reopened, before opting, according to media reports, for an alternative location.