JERUSALEM: Emergency shipments of food will be brought into Gaza from Egypt on Monday, a U.S. diplomat announced on Sunday after hosting talks with Israel and the Palestinians on alleviating an impending humanitarian crisis. We have agreed that the crossing from Kerem Shalom will open tomorrow for imports of food and other essential humanitarian products from Egypt, Richard Jones, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, told reporters. Kerem Shalom is located inside Israel, at the corner of the border with Gaza and Egypt. The meeting at Jones s home near Tel Aviv was held after Palestinians reported shortages of bread and other staples in Gaza as a result of Israel s off-and-on closure of the Karni terminal that handles most goods traffic with the Jewish state. Israel has cited security concerns for shutting Karni, which was last closed on March 13, and said it has no immediate plans to reopen it. It had proposed a limited transfer of goods via Kerem Shalom. Palestinians had rejected the offer, saying Kerem Shalom was too small to meet the needs of 1.4 million Gazans. But chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said after meeting Jones: We decided on an Egyptian-Palestinian-U.S. meeting to agree on arrangements for goods to enter (Gaza) through Kerem Shalom. Jones said a further meeting would be held Monday at Kerem Shalom to work out the operational details for food shipments from Egypt to Gaza. Signaling the Palestinians still wanted Karni to serve as the main passage for commercial goods, Erekat said a separate U.S.-Israeli-Palestinian meeting would also be held to put into effect security arrangements for the entry of goods at Karni . In the meantime, he said, European Union and Palestinian representatives would meet later in the week to discuss exporting Gaza-grown produce through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. John Ging, director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said he was distressed at the impact food shortages were having on Gazans. Every day is taking us a step closer to a humanitarian crisis, Ging told a news conference in Gaza City before Sunday s meeting. He said that besides flour and wheat, cooking oil, sugar and other staples were in short supply. UNRWA had no food reserves left, Ging added. Gaza s economy still relies on supplies from Israel despite its withdrawal from the impoverished coastal strip last year. Reuters
