The Zikim crossing in northern Gaza has reopened for the first time in 40 days, the United Nations said Monday, allowing humanitarian supplies to enter the area directly.
"This will help address a critical need by allowing supplies to enter northern Gaza directly, so we don't have to truck them from the south," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
He said that supplies had been offloaded there over the weekend, and the collection of "food, nutrition and other humanitarian items" from the World Food Programme and UNICEF restarted on Monday.
Dujarric warned, however, that a number of "major constraints remain," including Israeli customs requirements that can cause delays, a lack of security scanning capacity and "blanket bans on specific U.N. agencies and NGO partners" who are doing humanitarian work in Gaza.
Israel closed all crossings into the Gaza Strip as part of a "security" measure after the launch of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28.
It soon after reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing in the south, which has served as the main entry point for aid into Gaza. It later reopened the Rafah crossing, also in the south.
Gaza is still reeling from more than two years of genocidal attacks by Israel, which devastated the blockaded Palestinian enclave's civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and schools, and killed more than 75,000 people, mostly civilians.
