Anadolu Staff
04 January 2024•Update: 04 January 2024
JERUSALEM
Israel weighs opening the Erez (Beit Hanoun) crossing to allow humanitarian aid into the Palestinian enclave amid US pressure, according to Israeli media on Thursday.
The move comes ahead of a planned visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Israel next week, Haaretz newspaper reported.
Israel has shut all crossings with the Gaza Strip and placed the seaside enclave under blockade following a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct 7.
“Israel also considers allowing aid trucks through a gap in the border fence near Be’eri settlement, which the army uses to transport troops into Gaza,” Haaretz said.
Aid trucks currently cross into Gaza through Egypt’s Rafah border crossing, although quantities are not sufficient to meet the needs of the territory’s 2.4 million population.
Israel has launched air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Oct. 7.
At least 22,313 Palestinians have since been killed and 57,296 others injured, according to Gaza’s health authorities, while nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.
The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million residents displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicines.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Ankara
