The Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza opened today to trucks carrying aid for the first time since the war broke out, officials said, a move intended to double the amount of food and medicine reaching the enclave.

The crossing had been closed since a bloody attack by militants from the Palestinian group Hamas on communities in southern Israel on October 7, and aid was being distributed only through the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt, which Israel has said can accept entry. only 100 trucks per day.

Two Egyptian Red Crescent sources told Reuters that trucks were starting to enter today through the Kerem Shalom border crossing en route to Gaza. One source said there were 79 trucks.

Kerem Shalom, on the border of Egypt, Israel and Gaza, is one of the main transit points for goods in and out of Gaza, allowing them to be transported much faster than the Rafah crossing a few kilometers away.

Israel last week approved the entry of aid.

“Starting today (December 17), UN trucks carrying aid will undergo security checks and be transported directly to Gaza via Kerem Shalom, in keeping with our agreement with the US,” COGAT, an agency, said in a statement of the military coordinating humanitarian aid with the Palestinian Territories.

The prime minister’s office said earlier that this would allow Israel to meet its commitments to allow in 200 aid trucks a day, as agreed under a hostage deal reached and implemented last month.

Asked if aid had flown into Gaza, an Israeli official replied ‘yes’.

Israel had already agreed to allow trucks to be inspected at Kerem Shalom, but the trucks were previously required to return to Rafah in order to cross into Gaza from Egypt. Aid organizations had called for them to be allowed through directly.

Aid may not reach Gazans, Col. Eland Goren, head of COGAT’s political division, told Reuters, saying humanitarian agencies in Gaza had not increased their capacity to distribute aid to meet demand from the influx. of Gazans who left the southern part of the enclave following Israeli recommendation.

“If the UN doesn’t have the ability to gather it and distribute it, it doesn’t matter how many border crossings are opened,” Goren said. “They cannot depend on the same mechanism they had before the war.

“We adapted,” Goren said. “Unfortunately not the UN.”

Relevant UN agencies were not immediately available for comment.

As the Israeli campaign in Gaza intensifies, the humanitarian situation in the besieged enclave has worsened dramatically, with the United Nations and other international organizations warning of severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine.