Israel has approved reopening multiple crossings into Gaza following US demands to allow aid deliveries into the famine-threatened region.
“Israel will allow the temporary delivery of humanitarian aid” through the Ashdod Port and the Erez land crossing, as well as increased deliveries from neighbouring Jordan at the Kerem Shalom crossing, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
The move came after a tense, 30-minute phone call on Thursday with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, in which US president Joe Biden demanded “specific, concrete” steps to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying conditions could be placed on US aid if Israel did not respond.
Just hours later, in the middle of the night in Jerusalem, Israel announced it would open two aid routes, the Erez crossing point in the north and the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south, into the coastal Palestinian territory which has been under siege since the start of the Israel-Hamas war nearly six months ago.
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