The Israeli occupation forces continue to close the Rafah border crossing and the Karam Abu Salem commercial crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, for the thirteenth day in a row, which has exacerbated the humanitarian catastrophe that the besieged Strip is suffering from.

The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, warned yesterday, Saturday, that the failure to open land crossings and safe access to them portends the continuation of catastrophic humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip, and that only 33 trucks have arrived in the city of Rafah, since March 6. This May.

The closure of the crossings coincides with the occupation’s escalation of its aggression against the Rafah, Central, Gaza and North governorates, and even the Al-Mawasi area, to which citizens are forced to flee.

Since May 7, the Israeli occupation forces have occupied the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing and stopped the flow of aid to the Gaza Strip.

Since the fifth of the same month, the occupation forces have continued to close the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing southeast of the city of Rafah, and are preventing the entry of humanitarian and medical aid.

The Rafah crossing is considered the main land crossing through which aid enters and the wounded and sick exit to receive treatment outside the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli occupation continues its aggression against the Gaza Strip, by land, sea and air, since the seventh of last October, which resulted in the death of 35,386 citizens, the majority of whom were children and women, and the injury of 79,366 others, in an infinite toll, as thousands of victims are still under the rubble.