The new crossing into Gaza where aid struggles to get in
By Lucy Williamson
Gate 96 is little more than a hole in Gaza’s border fence.
Its rutted track leads away towards Gaza City; a bumpy lifeline, quickly lost in thick evening darkness.
When the UN accuses Israel of deliberately keeping aid flows at a trickle, Israel points to Gate 96 – one one of several new aid routes it has approved, along with airdrops, and a maritime corridor from Cyprus.
Along the border fence, seven lorries loaded with food aid are lined up and waiting to cross, their engines slowly turning beneath the occasional boom of artillery.
This new crossing point takes them directly into Gaza’s desperate northern areas, and avoids a long and difficult drive through the conflict zone.
But with the UN warning that northern Gaza is weeks away from famine, international demands to ramp up the amount of aid are getting more insistent.
Israel says it has facilitated over 350 aid trucks into northern Gaza over the past month. Aid agencies say the territory as a whole needs 500 a day.
“The bottleneck of this chain does not lie with the IDF [Israel Defense Forces],” said Colonel Moshe Tetro, head of the army’s Coordination and Liaison Administration, which handles approvals for aid convoys.
