The foreign ministers of the 22 member states of the Arab League have decided to send food and medical supplies to the Gaza Strip through the border crossings from Egypt, according to a statement released after an emergency meeting, according to media reports.
In addition to the aid the member countries will also receive sick Palestinians for treatment.
Due to continued rocket fire from Gaza towards cities in southern Israel, Jerusalem has decided that the border crossings with Gaza will remain closed and only basic humanitarian aid will be allowed in during times of quiet.
The closing of the border terminals has put the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in a difficult situation since the organization cannot deliver aid to Gaza from its base of operations in Israel when the crossings are closed, yet UNRWA has no means of stopping Palestinian terror groups from launching rockets.
“We have considered those options, but quite frankly the easiest, in principle, is to bring our humanitarian aid supplies in through Israel,” the U.N.’s Humanitarian Coordinator Maxwell Gaylard told The Media Line when asked whether or not the U.N. would consider transporting aid through Egypt.
Gaylard also told journalists during a news conference in east Jerusalem on Wednesday that the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza was not suitable for bringing in the quantities of aid that the U.N. needed to operate in Gaza.