Morocco delivers humanitarian aid to Gaza via land routes through Israel

Israeli diplomatic source said on March 12 that Morocco sent 40 tons of humanitarian supplies for Gaza via Ben Gurion Airport, the latest bid to diversify aid routes into Gaza.

Rabat’s foreign ministry said in a statement that “Morocco is the first country to transport its humanitarian aid via this unprecedented land route”, the Times of Israel reports.

The aid was later transferred to the Palestinian Red Crescent at the Kerem Shalom Crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, a Moroccan diplomatic source told AFP on condition of anonymity. An Israeli official confirmed the delivery, adding that it was approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office as a Ramadan gesture to Rabat.

Since Hamas launched its shock terror assault in southern Israel on October 7 and started a war in which Israel has vowed to destroy the Gaza-ruling terror group, aid trucks entering the Strip have generally done so via Egypt, although aid has also passed through Israel’s Kerem Shalom Crossing since it reopened in December.

The diplomatic source said Morocco’s ties with Israel, formalized in a US-brokered normalization pact in 2020 known as the Abraham Accords, helped the operation go ahead.

“Morocco has always said that its relationship with Israel is intended to serve peace in the region and the interests of the Palestinians,” the source said.

Israel has also agreed to expand the number of trucks entering Gaza from Jordan via the Allenby Crossing into the West Bank, the Israeli official said.

Also this week, Israel began transferring flour shipments from the US and Turkey that had been held up at the Ashdod port for roughly two months.