Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi agreed in a phone call with his US counterpart Joe Biden to allow United Nations aid to pass through the Karem Abu Salem border crossing (known in Israel as Kerem Shalom) towards the bombed and besieged Gaza Strip. said the White House.
“President Biden welcomed President el-Sissi’s commitment to allowing the flow of humanitarian assistance provided by the UN” through the passage, he said in a readout of the call, adding: “This will help save lives.”
Aid will be delivered to Gaza through the crossing – located where the borders of Egypt, Israel and Gaza meet – until legal mechanisms are in place to reopen the crucial crossing point of Rafah on the Palestinian side, indicated the Egyptian presidency.
The agreement results from “the difficult humanitarian situation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the lack of livelihoods in the Strip and the lack of fuel needed for hospitals and bakeries,” the statement said.
This decision was also confirmed by the presidency of the Palestinian Authority, according to the Wafa news agency.
According to the White House statement, Biden expressed “his full commitment to supporting efforts to reopen the Rafah crossing with arrangements acceptable to both Egypt and Israel.” The statement said he agreed to send a high-level team to Cairo next week for further discussions.
Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on May 6, shortly after launching a widely criticized ground and air offensive in the area where tens of thousands of displaced families had sought refuge.
The resulting shutdown created an aid backlog in Egypt, where some food aid began to rot.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Kimberly Halkett, reporting from Washington, DC, said it was “not really a big surprise” that the crossing was secured.
“What is happening is that, behind the scenes, for several weeks now, we have been told that talks are taking place between Israel, Egypt and American officials to reach some sort of agreement and try to ‘get some sort of opening to make it easier for help to arrive,’ Halkett said.
“The objective actually, from the United States’ point of view, is to try to convince a neutral third party… to try to take control of the Rafah crossing – and that seems to be where the key is. stumbling,” Halkett added.
Aid agencies and rights groups, including several United Nations bodies, have warned that dwindling supplies to Gaza would lead to famine and further worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis.
Before the closure of the Rafah crossing, humanitarian aid and essential fuel were flowing into the territory. The shortages have shut down several hospitals and affected much of northern Gaza, where famine has set in in some ravaged areas.
Earlier on Friday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that access to the Gaza Strip is extremely limited with fewer than 1,000 humanitarian aid trucks entering the enclave since the 7 May, the day the Israeli Rafah offensive began.
“There are many access gates to Gaza. …Whether by land or by sea, we do not control these gates, but we want them all to be open,” UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said on Thursday.
Friday’s announcement comes as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to end its military offensive in Rafah and open the border crossing to aid.
“The humanitarian situation must now be described as dire,” the ICJ, also known as the World Court, said on Friday. He also demanded access to Gaza for war crimes investigators.
More than a million Palestinians have fled Rafah in recent weeks as Israeli forces pushed deeper into Gaza’s southernmost town. People displaced by the fighting lack shelter, food, water and other essentials for their survival, according to the UN.
Gaza’s health ministry said 35,857 Palestinians have been killed and 80,293 injured in the Israeli assault on the enclave since October 7. The war began after attacks by Hamas in southern Israel killed 1,139 people.