Israel opens Gaza crossing for emergency food

Israel today opened an additional crossing with the Gaza Strip to allow emergency food from Egypt to enter the impoverished Palestinian area.

The main crossings of the Gaza Strip have been closed for much of this year, causing food shortages in Gaza and great losses to Palestinian merchants and farmers who cannot export their products.

At the urging of the United States, Israel had on Monday opened the largest crossing, Karni, to allow food into the area but was not yet allowing cargo to come out of Gaza.

Today, Israel opened the Kerem Shalom crossing to allow food from Egypt into Gaza, the Israeli and Palestinian border authorities said.

Israeli military officials said Palestinians would also be able to send exports through the crossing, but border authorities did not immediately confirm this.

Egypt is sending the Palestinians 7,000 tons of food, mostly wheat, rice and sugar through Kerem Shalom, said Salim Abu Safiah, director-general of the Palestinian border authority.

The Israeli side of Kerem Shalom opened this morning, but the Palestinian side was not expected to be open until noon, and then the Egyptian cargo could enter, the Israeli border authority said.

At Karni, 200 trucks were due to pass into Gaza, the authority said.

The United States had pressed Israel to open the crossings during a meeting of Israeli, Palestinian and American officials.

Israel has kept the crossings closed on and off since mid-January over concerns Palestinian militants were planning attacks there.