(22 Dec 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kerem Shalom Crossing - 22 December 2023
1. Various of aid trucks entering Kerem Shalom Crossing for inspection
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Col. Moshe Tetro, Head of COGAT’s Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA) to Gaza:
“Last Friday in order to abide by the terms of our agreement with the United States and in order to stabilize the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the cabinet approved a temporary measure of unloading trucks carrying humanitarian aid to the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom Crossing. This aid is met by international organisations and delivered to the people of Gaza. Over 300 trucks have already been transferred via Kerem Shalom directly to Gaza.”
3. Various of aid and trucks
4. Worker moving aid onto truck
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Col. Moshe Tetro, Head of COGAT’s Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA) to Gaza:
“Israel is committed to working with our partners in order to continue facilitating a larger amount of aid. Israel has the ability to increase the amount of aid. The challenge right now is with the capacity of the international aid organisation to receive it.”
6. Close of soldiers at crossing
7. Wide of trucks at crossing
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Col. Moshe Tetro, Head of COGAT’s Coordination and Liaison Administration (CLA) to Gaza:
“In terms of food, the reserves in Gaza Strip are sufficient for the near term. There is no food shortage in Gaza. And as I mentioned, international organisations are bringing food into the Gaza Strip everyday.”
9. Worker on forklift moving aid to truck
10. Driver preparing aid on top of truck
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mahmoud, Egyptian driver:
“I’m from Egypt, Mahmoud, came from Egypt, I came carrying flour to our Palestinian brothers, aid.”
12. Driver preparing truck
STORYLINE:
Trucks, carrying humanitarian aid bound for the Gaza Strip, were inspected at the Kerem Shalom Crossing on Friday after they arrived from Egypt.
At the start of the war, Israel stopped all deliveries of food, water, medicine and fuel into the territory.
After US pressure, it allowed a trickle of aid in through Egypt.
But UN agencies say only 10% of Gaza’s food needs has been entering for weeks and that more than a half-million people are starving in the territory.
However, in a news conference on Friday, Col. Moshe Tetro, who heads Israel's COGAT’s Coordination and Liaison Administration to Gaza, said "in terms of food, the reserves in Gaza Strip are sufficient for the near term."
"There is no food shortage in Gaza," he claimed.
This week, Israel began allowing aid to enter Gaza through its Kerem Shalom crossing, which boosted the number of trucks entering from around 100 a day to around 190 on Wednesday, according to the UN.
But an Israeli strike Thursday morning hit the Palestinian side of the crossing, forcing the UN to stop its pickups of aid there, according to a spokesperson of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
At least four staff members at the crossing were killed, a nearby hospital reported.
The Israeli military said it struck militants in the area.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Israel has been working to increase its inspection of aid trucks to 300 or 400 a day, and blamed the UN for failures in delivery.
On Friday, Palestinian officials said that the death toll in Gaza had exceeded 20,000 — around 1% of the territory's prewar population.
The Health Ministry in Gaza does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.
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