Press Briefing by IDF Spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari Regarding the IDF's New Humanitarian Aid Directives

‏Today, I want to share the next phase of our humanitarian operations,
‎‏We have worked together with countries and international organizations from around the world to develop new and improved measures to increase the flow of aid to Gazan civilians by land, sea and air.

‎‏Since the October 7th massacre, the IDF has been fighting the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza.
‎‏While Hamas continues to hold 133 hostages and use Gazans as human shields,
‎‏Israel continues to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza and find new ways to increase this effort:

‎‏We are constructing the Northern Crossing—a new land crossing from Israel into northern Gaza—to enable more aid to flow directly to civilians in the areas that have been challenging for trucks to access.

‎‏These new measures enable us to bring more aid and trucks destined for Gaza from overseas, including via the land crossing with Jordan, ‎‏where we expect 50 aid trucks a day to pass through.

‎‏Following the cabinet’s decision, we have worked with international partners to bring in more aid from the sea via the Port of Ashdod ‎‏after which it will be transported down to crossings into Gaza.

‎‏The combination of these new measures ‎‏means that we expect the daily average of trucks of food, water, medicine and shelter supplies going into Gaza to go up gradually from 350 per day, to around 500 per day.

‎‏All of these efforts are due to close coordination with international partners and aid organizations ‎‏to maximize our combined humanitarian efforts.

‎‏We are cooperating with the U.S. central command in building a temporary-floating-pier on the coast of the Gaza Strip, ‎‏enabling aid to reach Gaza directly by sea. ‎‏This humanitarian effort shows the depth of the U.S.-Israel strategic partnership ‎‏- and the shared values of our two nations.

‎‏International airdrops of aid into Gaza are also continuing. ‎‏So far, over 3,600 packages of food and essentials ‎‏have been coordinated in 62 airdrops ‎‏by several countries.

‎‏This coordination is complicated ‏and it is complicated further by Hamas’ ongoing fire, including toward aid convoys.

‎‏We are working together with international organizations to solve the challenges of the distribution of aid inside Gaza, ‎and we are implementing the lessons learned from the tragic incident with the WCK ‎‏to maximize protection of aid workers and improve real-time cooperation of our humanitarian operations with international organizations.
‎‏We have also reiterated our operational procedures ‎‏regarding humanitarian aid convoys and workers ‎‏with all our forces.

‎‏As we have said since Day One: ‎‏Israel is at war with Hamas, not the people of Gaza.

‎‏Enabling humanitarian aid to reach Gazan civilians is a key part of our operations.
‎‏It means that we can strengthen our efforts to bring home all our hostages, ‎‏and dismantle the Hamas terror organization.

‎‏This week, IDF troops who were operating against Hamas terrorists in its Khan Yunis stronghold completed their missions and left Khan Yunis.

‎‏This enables us to prepare for future operations to continue dismantling Hamas,
‎‏and will enable Gazans who moved from Khan Yunis to Rafah, ‎‏to return to Khan Yunis. ‎‏We are working to establish field hospitals, water infrastructure, food and shelter in set areas in central Gaza.

‎‏The IDF will continue to do everything we can to bring home our hostages, defeat Hamas—and make sure we continue to get as much humanitarian aid as possible
‎‏into Gaza for the people of Gaza.