Israel allowed the opening of additional routes for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
The relevant decision was made by Israelʼs security cabinet soon after the conversation between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden, writes The Times of Israel.
Biden and Netanyahu discussed the April 4 IDF attack in central Gaza that killed seven World Central Kitchen humanitarian workers.
During the conversation, the US president "clearly made it clear" to Netanyahu that Israel needs to announce and implement a series of concrete steps aimed at leveling the damage to the civilian population, improving the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, and for the safety of humanitarian workers.
Israel then announced it would temporarily open the port of Ashdod to humanitarian cargo and reopen the Erez checkpoint in the northern Gaza Strip for the first time after it was heavily damaged in a terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7.
Israel will also increase the amount of aid from Jordan moving through the Kerem-Shalom checkpoint.
The White House welcomed Israelʼs decision and noted that the US is ready to cooperate with its allies to increase the amount of humanitarian aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip "in the coming days and weeks."
- It became known about the attack on the WCK humanitarian convoy in the morning of April 2. Seven employees of the organization were killed in it — they were returning from a warehouse in the city of Deir al-Balah, where they unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid.
- World leaders strongly condemned the attack on the volunteers. The IDF admitted that they accidentally hit the humanitarian convoy and called it "a mistake resulting from mistaken identification."