Israeli FM says Rafah crossing to ‘likely open’ on Sunday
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has said the Rafah crossing in southern Gaza “will likely open” this Sunday, according to remarks carried by Italy’s ANSA news agency.
Speaking during a press briefing at the Med Dialogues conference in Naples, Saar said that Israel is “making all the necessary preparations” while also coordinating with the European Union Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM), tasked since 2005 with supporting movement at the Gaza-Egypt border.
Saar also said preparations were being coordinated with “Palestinians themselves”, without providing further details.
Since Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire and a captives deal last week, the United Nations reported progress on aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip. But on Tuesday, Israel imposed new restrictions on aid entering Gaza and ruled out opening the Rafah crossing as planned, accusing Hamas of being too slow in returning the rest of the deceased captives.
More stalling. This peace plan has been in the works for months.
UNICEF says Israel must ‘open all the crossings now’
UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram says Palestinians in northern Gaza are in “desperate need” of food and water as thousands have returned to total destruction.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from the al-Mawasi area in the south of the Gaza Strip, Ingram said that in order to scale up humanitarian aid deliveries, multiple crossings into the enclave must be opened.
“The stakes are really high,” she said. “There are 28,000 children who were diagnosed with malnutrition in July and August alone, and thousands more since then. So, we need to make sure it’s not just food coming in, but malnutrition treatments, as well.”
Ingram added that while UNICEF has been clear that aid should not be used as a political bargaining chip, assistance to Gaza has been severely restricted over the past two years, and UN agencies were sidelined.
“This [ceasefire] is our opportunity to overcome all of that, to turn it right. That is why Israel has to open all of the border crossings now, and they have to let all of the aid into the Gaza Strip at scale alongside commercial goods,” she said.
On World Food Day, Israel continues to restrict aid into Gaza
Despite a ceasefire deal with Israel, Palestinians across the devastated Gaza Strip continue to go hungry as food supplies remain critically low and aid fails to reach those who need it most.
As per the ceasefire agreement, Israel was supposed to allow 600 humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza per day. However, Israel has since reduced the limit to 300 trucks per day, citing delays in retrieving bodies of Israeli captives buried under the rubble by Israeli attacks.
According to the UN2720 Monitoring and Tracking Dashboard, which monitors humanitarian aid being offloaded, collected, delivered and intercepted on its way into Gaza, from October 10-16, only 216 trucks have reached their intended destinations inside Gaza.
According to truck drivers, aid deliveries are facing significant delays, with Israeli inspections taking much longer than expected.
Satellite images captured by Planet Labs on October 14 and 15 show a large number of trucks queueing on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing and heading towards the Karem Abu Salem crossing.
