Israel army says WFP food aid from Ashdod port enters Gaza

AFP , Wednesday 17 Apr 2024

The Israeli army said World Food Programme aid that arrived via the Ashdod port entered the besieged Gaza Strip on Wednesday through an Israeli land crossing.

Kerem Shalom
File photo: A truck carrying humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip passes through the Kerem Shalom Crossing in southern Israel. AP

 

It would mark the first time Israel has allowed a UN agency to get aid to Gaza via the port since announcing it would open earlier this month.

"Eight World Food Programme trucks of flour entered the Gaza Strip from the Ashdod port today," the army said in a statement.

On April 5 Israel said it would use the Ashdod port, just north of Gaza, to deliver aid to the Palestinian territory which the UN and aid agencies have repeatedly warned is on the brink of famine.

"The trucks underwent a thorough security inspection at the Ashdod port," the Israeli army said. "They were then admitted into the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom Crossing."

On Tuesday the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said there had been "no significant change" in the amount of humanitarian aid entering Gaza, even after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to allow in more.

Israel's war and siege have created a "catastrophic" humanitarian crisis in the narrow strip home to some 2.4 million Palestinians with 85 percent of the population becoming displaced and half of them at risk of famine.

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza says Israel has killed nearly 34,000 people, mostly women and children, since the war began on 7 October.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online

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