New Gaza aid crossing could open soon, says German envoy

Deike Potzel says 'as many crossings as possible' are needed to bring in supplies to the enclave

Deike Potzel, Germany’s Special Envoy for Middle East Humanitarian Issues, on board a German military plane that parachuted aid into northern Gaza on April 21, 2024. Photo: German Embassy, Amman

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A crossing being built by Israel to deliver aid into northern Gaza could become operational within days, potentially lessening the need for international deliveries by air to the area, a senior German diplomat said on Monday.

The development comes 200 days into the conflict. More than 34,100 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's bombardment and ground invasion in Gaza. Hundreds of thousands have been at risk of famine from the war, which started with a surprise attack by Hamas and other militant groups on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians.

The UN has highlighted the food crisis, particularly in Gaza's more isolated north, which has been a focus for Germany and other western allies of Israel.

Deike Potzel, Germany’s Special Envoy for Middle East Humanitarian Issues, told reporters in Amman that Berlin hopes that a new road Israel is building to northern Gaza "will be ready within a week."

The road runs near the the Israeli village of Zikim.

A few lorries carrying aid have entered northern Gaza through a gate in a security fence near the Israeli village of Be'eri. The deliveries, however, were sporadic and the area is unsuitable for handling substantial volumes, according to humanitarian specialists.

The war has created a new humanitarian catastrophe in the Middle East, and contributed to direct attacks between Israel and Iran this month, bringing the region to the brink of a new crisis.

It has also brought Germany criticism for its support of Israel’s response to the Hamas attack, although Germany has also called for a humanitarian ceasefire and for Israel to refrain from overrunning Rafah, the city in southern Gaza which Israel says is a main base for Hamas.

At least one million Gazans have sought shelter in Rafah, which had a pre-conflict population of about 300,000.

Aid packages being dropped from a military aircraft over Gaza on April 3, 2024. Jordanian Army / AFP

In the north, the new road would allow aid lorries to come through Israel from Jordan, the centre of an international operation to parachute aid into northern Gaza.

Supplies from the kingdom are also being delivered through the Kerem Shalom border crossing at a rate of about 220 lorries a week. Israel has agreed for the lorries to be screened in Jordan, not at the crossing, to speed up deliveries.

Ms Potzel, who is on her fourth visit to Amman since the war started on October 7, said that although the aid volumes through Kerem Shalom had risen in recent weeks, further increases “are necessary”.

Germany, one of the biggest donors to the Palestinians, has poured millions of dollars of additional aid to UN agencies in recent months, and to Jordan and Egypt to help them procure, handle and deliver aid to Gaza.

It is also a member of the international military air bridge operation, based in Jordan, which drops supplies into northern Gaza.

Pressure from the West, and in particular the US, appears to have tempered Israeli restrictions on humanitarian deliveries. It has allowed aid to travel from Jordan to Gaza through Israel, in addition to the main Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

But UN and other officials say the amounts of aid reaching the enclave remain well short of what is required to meet basic needs.

Palestinians gather to receive aid outside a UN warehouse, in Gaza City, on March 18, 2024. Reuters

Ms Potzel said deliveries by air are no substitute for substantial aid deliveries by lorry from all possible roads into Gaza.

If land corridors “work properly” there will be no need for the deliveries by air, she said.

“Airdrops are crucial for people in northern Gaza now because so little goes in by land,” she said.

“We have been pushing for land [corridors] and we will keep doing so. We want as many crossings as possible to be opened.”

On several visits to Israel, she has discussed faster screening of supplies, and “security on the ground” for humanitarian workers.

“We have been talking in detail about each crossing, the routes the convoys are taking, and what goods are allowed in,” she said.

Last month, an Israeli air strike killed seven World Central Kitchen staff, leading to international anger and the suspension of work by several aid groups. The US charity had built a temporary pier in Gaza to receive aid by sea from Cyprus and was distributing food to kitchens throughout Gaza.

“The humanitarian situation needs to improve. Israel must also get better at protecting civilians,” said Ms Potzel.

200 days of war in Gaza - in pictures

Palestinians move with their belongings on a road lined with destroyed buildings, in Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, on April 22. AFP

An infant saved from the womb of her mother Sabreen Al Sheikh, who was killed in an Israeli strike along with her husband Shokri and her daughter Malak, lies in an incubator at Al Emirati hospital in Rafah, on April 21. Reuters

A man rides a bicycle, on April 2, past a damaged vehicle where employees from the World Central Kitchen non-profit, including foreigners, were killed in an Israeli air strike. Reuters

A woman at the damaged Al Shifa Hospital, on April 1, after Israeli forces withdrew from the medical complex following a two-week siege. Reuters

The view from a Jordanian flight dropping vital aid by parachute into Gaza, in March. Matthew Kynaston / The National

Nozha Awad flees Al Shifa hospital with her triplet children, after an Israeli raid siege began at the medical complex, in March. Reuters

Palestinians gather to receive aid outside a UNRWA warehouse, in March. Reuters

A family end their fast amid the rubble of their destroyed home, during Ramadan in Rafah, in March. Reuters

Wafaa Tabasi with her twin malnourished daughters, at Al Awda health centre in Rafah, in March. Reuters

Palestinians carry bags of flour taken from an aid lorry near an Israeli checkpoint in Gaza City, in February. Reuters

Fernando Simon Marman and Louis Hare, two Israeli hostages who, according to the Israeli military, were freed in a special forces operation in Rafah, reunite with loved ones at Sheba Medical Centre, in Ramat Gan, Israel, in February. Reuters

Palestinian Muhammad Al Durra with his children in the ruins of a house in Rafah where they sheltered on January 11, 2024. EPA

Family and friends at the funerals of journalists Hamza Al Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuraya on January 7, 2024 in Rafah, Gaza. Getty Images

Palestinians mourn relatives killed by Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip outside a mortuary in Khan Younis January 4, 2024. AP Photo

Displaced Palestinians queue to bake bread at a camp in the Muwasi area of Rafah, Gaza Strip, on December 23, 2023. AP Photo

Palestinians queue for food in Rafah, the Gaza Strip, on December 20, 2023. AP Photo

The ruins of Rafah on December 14, 2023. AFP

Palestinians wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip arrive at a hospital in Khan Younis on December 8, 2023. AP Photo

Palestinians flee Israeli bombing along the Salaheddine Road in the Zeitoun district of Gaza city on November 28, 2023. AFP

A Red Cross vehicle takes Israeli hostages from the Gaza Strip into Egypt in Rafah on November 25, 2023. AP

The ruins of buildings in Gaza city on November 24, 2023, as a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas took effect. AP Photo

A woman and her cat return home to eastern Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip during the first hours of a four-day truce between Israel and Hamas forces on November 24, 2023. AFP

Mourning the dead of Israeli bombardment outside the mortuary at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on November 14, 2023. AFP

Civilians and rescuers look for survivors in the rubble of a building after Israeli bombing of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on November 12, 2023. AFP

November 7, 2023, a month to the day after Hamas attacked Israel, a victim of an Israeli bombardment in Rafah is moved from the rubble. AFP

Searching the rubble after Israeli air strikes on the town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on October 26, 2023. AP Photo

Mourning the Kotz family at their funeral in Gan Yavne, Israel, on October 17, 2023. AP Photo

An Israeli firefighter composes himself after he and his colleagues extinguished cars set on fire by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Ashkelon, Israel, on October 9, 2023. AP Photo

Palestinians with the wreckage of an Israeli tank at the Gaza Strip fence east of the city of Khan Younis on October 7, 2023, the day Hamas forces swept unopposed into Israel. AP Photo

Israeli police officers evacuate a woman and a child from a site hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, on October 7, 2023. AP Photo