Israel reopens Erez crossing for Gaza aid trucks 7 months after it was destroyed by Hamas

Israel reopened the sole crossing on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip for the first time since it was destroyed by Hamas on October 7, allowing aid trucks to pass through the Erez checkpoint following US demands to do more to get aid into the Strip.

Reopening the Erez crossing has been one of the main pleas of international aid agencies for months to alleviate the humanitarian situation, which is believed to be most severe among the hundreds of thousands of civilians in the enclave’s northern sector.

The Israeli government opened the crossing point on the day of a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called for more humanitarian aid deliveries into the territory.

The Erez crossing, primarily used for foot traffic, had remained closed since it was destroyed during the Hamas attacks on October 7 that precipitated the war.

Israel announced it would reopen Erez last month, a few days after its forces mistakenly killed a group of humanitarian workers delivering food aid in Gaza in airstrikes that brought international condemnation. Israel apologized for those airstrikes; Washington, its closest ally, said further support for the war would depend on improving aid access.

Colonel Moshe Tetro, head of Israel’s Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza, says 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 tells reporters.