The IDF will step up its monitoring of humanitarian packages. The Israeli military announced late Monday that it would set up two additional checkpoints for the inspection of international humanitarian aid before it enters Palestinian territory through Rafah. This crossing in Egypt is the only one that international organizations can use to deliver aid to the people of Gaza.
Israel is increasing the speed at which humanitarian aid is inspected and sent into Gaza: integrated security screenings of trucks containing water, food, medical supplies and shelter equipment will be conducted at the Nitzana and Kerem Shalom Crossings. The trucks will then be... https://t.co/fwGskZTBLj
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 11, 2023
Israel stressed on Monday that no new access would be opened, but that the Nitzana and Kerem Shalom crossings would be used to carry out checks before the trucks pass through Rafah. "This measure will double the amount of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip," the IDF said on the X website (formerly Twitter).
Humanitarian crisis in Gaza
The UN aid agency OCHA said on Sunday that about 1 trucks had been entering Gaza every day since the end of a week-long truce on December 500, compared with the daily average of <> trucks before the war. The additional checkpoints will control "trucks carrying water, food, medical supplies and equipment to build shelters," according to a joint statement by the IDF and COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry's body in charge of Palestinian civil affairs.
The U.N. General Assembly is set to meet on Tuesday to discuss the humanitarian crisis, after the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution last week in favor of a humanitarian ceasefire.
Read alsoFailure of a ceasefire in Gaza: the United States alone against all?
The Gaza Strip has been shelled by Israel since the start of the war sparked by an attack on an unprecedented scale launched on October 7 by Hamas commandos infiltrated into Israel from Gaza, in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were massacred, according to the authorities. According to Gaza's ruling Hamas Health Ministry, more than 18,200 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory by Israeli shelling since October 7, the vast majority of them women and young people under the age of 18.