UN calls for immediate opening of Gaza’s Rafah border crossing amid surging humanitarian needs

The opening of a key border crossing between the besieged Gaza Strip and Egypt is “desperately needed,” the UN warned Monday.

“The UN agencies have supplies ready to move into southern Gaza to meet surging humanitarian needs. It is critical that life-saving assistance is allowed to move through Rafah crossing without delay,” spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters at the UN’s New York headquarters.

A plane carrying aid from the World Health Organization has arrived in al-Arish, an Egyptian city in the northern Sinai Peninsula near Gaza.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said earlier Monday that the Israeli government “has not taken a position that would lead to the opening of the Rafah crossing towards Gaza to allow for the entry of aid or the departure of citizens from third-party countries.”