War between Israel and Hamas: Israeli army will set up two checkpoints for aid trucks entering Gaza

The IDF will increase surveillance of humanitarian aid packages. The Israeli army announced on Monday evening the establishment of two additional checkpoints to screen international humanitarian aid before entering Palestinian territory through Rafah. This crossing point in Egypt is the only one that international organizations can use to deliver aid to the people of Gaza.

On Monday, Israel stressed that no new access would be opened, but that the Nitzana and Kerem Shalom checkpoints would be used to carry out checks before trucks were sent through Rafah. “This measure will double the amount of humanitarian aid reaching the Gaza Strip,” the Israeli army said on X (formerly Twitter).

Humanitarian crisis in Gaza

The U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said on Sunday that about 100 trucks had entered Gaza every day since the week-long truce ended on Dec. 1, compared with an average of 500 trucks a day before the war. Additional checkpoints will check “trucks carrying water, food, medicine and materials for shelter construction,” according to a joint statement by the Israeli army and COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry unit in charge of Palestinian civil affairs.

The UN General Assembly is due to meet on Tuesday to discuss the humanitarian crisis after the United States last week vetoed a Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire.

The Gaza Strip has been under Israeli shelling since the start of the war, sparked by an unprecedented attack on Oct. 7 by Hamas commandos infiltrating Israel from the Gaza Strip, in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed, authorities said. Since October 7, Israeli bombing has killed more than 18,200 people in the Palestinian territory, the vast majority of them women and young people under the age of 18, according to the Gaza-ruling Hamas Health Ministry.