Israel urged to open more border crossings to boost Gaza aid deliveries

Aid agencies and the United Nations are calling for Israel to open more crossings into Gaza to allow “thousands of trucks” to enter the devastated territory every day.

- Jason Burke Daniel Boffey Jerusalem

Preparations are being made to allow convoys through the southern Rafah crossing with Egypt today, the first such access through the critical entry point since May last year.

However, humanitarian officials are also calling for other entry points to be opened, including a crossing to northern Gaza, which would allow vital supplies to reach hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have travelled across the devastated territory in recent days to return to their shattered homes.

Tom Fletcher, the UN’s most senior relief coordinator, called on Israel to facilitate the “massive surge of humanitarian aid - on which so many lives depend, and on which the world has insisted”.

“We need more crossings open and a genuine, practical, problem-solving approach to removing remaining obstacles,” he said. “Throughout this crisis, we have insisted that withholding aid from civilians is not a bargaining chip. Facilitation of aid is a legal obligation.”

Aid agencies say thousands of tonnes of aid, including food and medical supplies, have been loaded on to trucks waiting in Egypt or stockpiled elsewhere in the region.