Trucks carrying goods from Jordan crossed into the West Bank for the first time in months on Wednesday, after Israel said it would reopen a key land bridge with its neighbor, including for aid and other cargo bound for the Gaza Strip.
It was unclear whether the first trucks out of the gate were transporting humanitarian supplies or commercial items, but a spokesperson for COGAT, the branch of the Israeli Defense Ministry that controls aid flows to Gaza, confirmed that the crossing, known as Allenby, was open for the passage of aid.
The move to restore Allenby as a transit point for relief comes as pressure builds on Israel to move a tenuous U.S.-backed ceasefire in Gaza into its second phase, and as the United Nations and other aid organizations have warned that nowhere near enough supplies are being allowed into the enclave to meet the needs of the Palestinian population, the majority of whom are displaced and living in makeshift shelters or tents.
Under the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, Israeli authorities are supposed to allow at least 600 trucks of aid to enter Gaza each day. But the United Nations and other aid agencies say they continue to face bottlenecks and other restrictions, including delays and denials of cargo, custom clearance challenges and limited routes inside Gaza for transporting humanitarian goods.
Israel closed the border in September after a Jordanian truck driver killed two Israeli soldiers at the crossing. An Israeli security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press, said Jordanian truck drivers would undergo stricter screening processes and that a dedicated security force had been assigned to monitor the terminal.The reopening also coincided with a visit to Israel and Jordan by the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Mike Waltz, who met on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A statement from the U.S. mission to the U.N. said Waltz “welcomed Israel’s cooperation on expanding border crossings,” including Allenby. Waltz also met with Jordan’s King Abdullah on Sunday.
In recent days, both Israeli and Hamas officials have said that there will be no discussion of moving to the second phase of President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan until the first phase has been fully implemented. Both continue to point fingers at the other for not holding up their side of the deal. Israel has blamed Hamas for being slow to return the bodies of hostages, with one remaining in Gaza. Hamas has, in turn, pointed to the continued closure of border crossings for medical evacuations and aid and the daily fire that Israeli troops are carrying out in Gaza.
But as pressure from the U.S. and other mediators to push the deal into the next phase grows, Netanyahu said Sunday that the transition could happen “very shortly” and announced he will meet with Trump on Dec. 29. A Hamas official also told the Associated Press on Sunday that the group is open to “freezing or storing” its weapons arsenal as part of the ceasefire.
The second phase, which in theory would involve the disarmament of Hamas, withdrawal of Israeli troops from the territory, and the formation of an international force to maintain security, is likely to be far more complicated to achieve than even the first phase. Any delays in reaching that second phase leaves open the prospect of a status quo being established in Gaza in which Israel continues to occupy half of the enclave.
One remaining step is the return of the remains of Ran Gvili, a 24-year-old Israeli police officer who was killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
“Without Gvili, Israel will not begin the talks over phase two,” said an Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
U.N. agencies have reported an increase in aid that has been allowed into Gaza since the ceasefire came into effect, but say the levels are still far below what is needed for a population trying to recover from widespread malnutrition, famine and infectious diseases with a decimated health care system.
Israel has allowed commercial operators and aid groups that bypass the U.N. system to scale up their operations more rapidly than other major relief organizations with long-running histories of assistance in Gaza. In particular, Israel has refused to allow UNRWA, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees, to deliver aid, despite its sprawling infrastructure in Gaza and decades-long presence in the territory.
“A shockingly high number” of children are still suffering from acute malnutrition, said Tess Ingram, a spokeswoman for UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency, according to comments reported by Reuters.
Ingram also told reporters on Tuesday that opening the Rafah crossing in southern Gaza, which links it with Egypt, could help bring down the number of children suffering from malnutrition. “We really need to see all types of aid come in, particularly nutritious food through commercial routes as well,” Ingram said.
Israel said last week that it would reopen the crossing in the coming days, but only for the exit of Palestinians from Gaza.
Millions of shelter items have also been stuck in Jordan, Egypt and Israel while awaiting Israeli approval to enter, a consortium of humanitarian organizations focused on providing shelter aid said in November.
A severe winter storm landing in the region this week threatens 850,000 people sheltering in 761 displacement sites particularly vulnerable to flooding in the Gaza Strip, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said. On Wednesday, there were reports of flooding in large parts of Gaza City, particularly low-lying areas.
“The entire services system is unable able to rescue displaced people due to the heavy rain and flooding,” said Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for Gaza Civil Defense, in a statement to reporters. “Rainwater has risen to more than one meter in some shelter centers.”
The storm, dubbed Byron, has already hit Greece and Cyprus and is expected to bring as much as eight inches of rain to Israel and Gaza.
“Low pressure fronts pose a major danger to displaced people and residents because of the destruction inflicted on the infrastructure,” Gaza municipality spokesman Hosni Mhanna told Al Araby TV on Wednesday.
The post Israel reopens Jordan crossing as pressure builds to advance Gaza truce appeared first on Washington Post.
