JERUSALEM: Israel reopened the only crossing on the border it controls between Jordan and the occupied West Bank on Wednesday to aid trucks for Gaza after nearly three months of closure, Israeli and Palestinian officials told AFP.
Israel closed the crossing after a Jordanian truck driver shot dead an Israeli soldier and a reserve officer at the border in September.
The crossing in the Jordan Valley reopened to travelers a few days later, but not to humanitarian aid destined for the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by more than two years of war.
“The Allenby crossing was open today and trucks are going from the Allenby crossing to Gaza,” said a spokesperson for COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body that oversees civilian affairs in the Palestinian Territories.
A Palestinian official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed that the crossing had been opened.
On Tuesday 96 trucks carrying materials for the production of cement were allowed to pass through the crossing, the official said.
On Wednesday a further 20 trucks of humanitarian aid entered, and on Thursday sand was expected to be allowed in for the construction sector, the official added.
Since the crossing’s closure, Jordan said it had been able to send some aid to Gaza via the Sheikh Hussein crossing, located north of the occupied West Bank.
On Tuesday, an Israeli official said the transfer of goods and aid from Jordan through Allenby was about to resume after a government directive.
“All aid trucks destined for the Gaza Strip will proceed under escort and security, following a thorough security inspection,” the official said.
The Allenby crossing is the only international gateway for Palestinians from the West Bank that does not require entering Israel, which has occupied the territory since 1967.
Israel reopens West Bank-Jordan crossing for Gaza aid
https://arab.news/nc4t4
Israel reopens West Bank-Jordan crossing for Gaza aid
- Israel closed the Allenby crossing to aid destined for the Gaza strip in September
- Palestinian official says 96 trucks carrying cement meterials were allowed to pass through on Tuesday
South Sudan says its troops are guarding strategic Heglig oil field in Sudan
- Sudanese government forces and workers at the Heglig oil field withdrew from the area on Sunday to avoid fighting that could have damaged facilities there
NAIROBI: South Sudan has sent its troops to neighboring Sudan to guard the strategic Heglig oil field near the border, its military head said on Thursday, days after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took control of it.
Heglig houses the main processing facility for South Sudanese oil, which makes up the bulk of South Sudan’s public revenues. Some oil has continued to flow through Heglig, though at much reduced volumes.
Sudanese government forces and workers at the Heglig oil field withdrew from the area on Sunday to avoid fighting that could have damaged facilities there, government sources told Reuters on Monday.
General Paul Nang, South Sudan chief of defense forces, said the troop deployment was agreed between South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir, Sudan Army Chief General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and RSF head Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
“The three agreed that the area of Heglig should be protected because (it) is a very important strategic area for the two countries,” Nang said in comments on state-owned South Sudan Broadcasting Radio.
“Now it is the forces of South Sudan that are in Heglig.”
Oil is transported through the Greater Nile pipeline system to Port Sudan on the Red Sea for export, making the Heglig site critical both for Sudan’s foreign exchange earnings and for South Sudan, which is landlocked and relies almost entirely on pipelines through Sudan.
Another pipeline, Petrodar, runs from South Sudan’s Upper Nile State to Port Sudan.
The war that started in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF has repeatedly disrupted South Sudan’s oil flows, which before the conflict averaged between 100,000 and 150,000 barrels per day for export via Sudan.
