Israel says it opened new aid crossing into hard-hit northern Gaza

Israel said Friday it had opened a new crossing for aid trucks into northern Gaza as its efforts to ramp up aid to the besieged enclave came under criticism from a top United Nations official.

Israel, facing mounting U.S. pressure to improve the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, has pledged this week to dramatically increase aid to the strip.

The military said that trucks carrying food passed the newly opened northern crossing Thursday. It said the aid was inspected at its Kerem Shalom crossing near the Egyptian border before being transported inside Israel to the crossing. The new system is meant as an alternative to the challenging and dangerous process of transporting aid from northern to southern Gaza.

In the coming days, Israel says it will also open its port in the southern city of Ashdod for more aid shipments. Most aid is currently delivered by land from neighboring Egypt.

COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of Palestinian civilian affairs, said Friday it has sent 1,903 trucks into Gaza over the last week, with 221 truckloads of aid reaching the north over that same timeframe.

However, the U.N. says the surge of aid is not being felt in Gaza because difficulties persist in distributing the aid.

“It’s very easy for Israel to say, ‘We’ve sent you 1,000 trucks so please deliver them inside Gaza,’” said Jamie McGoldrick, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories.

The U.N. says aid distribution within Gaza is dangerous and mired in long holdups at inspection checkpoints. Bringing aid to the north of the territory — where the U.N. says famine is near — is particularly difficult, McGoldrick said, with only one or two roads north open at a given time.

Several aid organizations have suspended their convoys north after an Israeli strike on a World Central Kitchen aid mission killed seven aid workers.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition