Israel's security minister criticizes government over opening of Kerem Shalom border crossing

By Mustafa Haboush and Muhammed Emin Canik

JERUSALEM (AA) - Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has criticized the government for allowing aid trucks to enter the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom border crossing.

According to Israel's Maariv newspaper, Ben-Gvir expressed his anger at the sudden change in policy without a discussion in the Cabinet, describing the decision as irresponsible. He said aid delivery through the crossing should not be allowed unless all the hostages were back home.

Israeli authorities on Friday announced the temporary reopening of the Kerem Shalom, acquiescing to the US calls to allow more humanitarian aid into the strip.

"The cabinet approved today a temporary measure of unloading the trucks on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, instead of having them return to Rafah," the prime minister's office said in a statement.

"The cabinet’s decision determines that only humanitarian aid arriving from Egypt will be transferred into the Gaza Strip this way."

A source in the Gaza administration, however, told Anadolu that no aid trucks entered the besieged enclave through the crossing, saying Israel used the border to inspect aid trucks, which were then sent through the Rafah border with Egypt.

Israel's air and ground attacks on Gaza since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas have killed more than 18,700 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured many more.

The war has left Gaza in ruins with half of the coastal territory's housing stock damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million people displaced within the densely-populated enclave amid shortages of food and clean water.

Of the roughly 240 people taken hostage by Hamas during the offensive more than two months ago, around 130 remain in captivity after others were returned during a temporary truce last month.

Israeli soldiers also shot and killed three Israeli hostages in northern Gaza after misidentifying them as threats, according to an army spokesperson.

*Writing by Alperen Aktas in Istanbul