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Israel and the United Nations said Thursday Kerem Shalom Border Crossing Several key Israeli crossings could soon open to help speed up the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, where the war between Israel and Hamas has left its people desperately short of basic necessities.
In Israel, Col. Elad Goren, head of the civil affairs department of COGAT, the Israeli-Palestinian civil coordination body, told reporters: “We will open Kerem Shalom Just to check. That will happen in the next few days.”
A senior U.S. official said Israel had agreed to open its border at the request of the United States. Kerem Shalom Border Crossing Washington has been negotiating with Israel on the issue for weeks.
In Geneva, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths told reporters that talks were ongoing. “There are indications at the moment that negotiations may start very soon,” he said.
Griffiths said that if the plan is implemented, it will greatly facilitate humanitarian aid operations and enable more humanitarian aid to reach densely populated Palestinian areas, which have been severely damaged by Israeli bombing during the two-month war.
“It would be the first miracle we have seen in weeks and would greatly facilitate the logistical process and the logistical basis for humanitarian operations,” he said of the possible opening of Kerem Shalom.
He said the warring parties would prefer to open up “maybe not all at once, but certainly gradually.”
Aid to Gaza
Currently, the only aid supplies allowed into Gaza are through the Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border, which is only for pedestrians and not trucks.
The Kerem Shalom crossing was used for more than 60 percent of truck traffic into the Gaza Strip before the war broke out on Oct. 7. The crossing is located on Gaza’s southern border with Israel and Egypt, and Griffiths said both Israel and Egypt have become more open to the idea of restoring the route.
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