Colonel Moshe Tetro, head of Israel’s Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza, said he hoped the crossing would be open every day, and help reach a target of 500 aid trucks entering Gaza daily. That would be in line with pre-war supplies entering the enclave and far more than it has received during the last seven months.
“This is only one step of the measures that we took in the last few weeks,” he told reporters.
A convoy of Jordanian aid trucks heading for the Erez crossing was attacked by Israeli settlers, but managed to continue on, Jordan’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
The US special envoy for humanitarian issues warned last month the risk of famine throughout war-devastated Gaza was very high and called for more to be done to get aid into the northern part of the tiny, densely populated territory.
The United Nations has long complained of obstacles to getting aid in and distributing it throughout Gaza since Israel began an aerial and ground offensive against Gaza’s ruling Islamist militant group Hamas in October.
