HAMILTON, Canada

The UN said Wednesday that humanitarian efforts in the Gaza Strip are increasing despite ongoing challenges, as Israel informed the UN that it will reopen the Zikim crossing for aid deliveries.

Citing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at a news conference that "the humanitarian response continues to ramp up, despite the many constraints that remain."

"We and our partners stress that these impediments must be lifted so we can expand the response as quickly as possible to meet all the needs," he said.

He confirmed that "overnight, Israeli authorities did inform us that the Zikim crossing, between Israel and northern Gaza, will be reopened for humanitarian cargo."

"In recent weeks, we have been repairing the road leading to Zikim inside Gaza in preparation for this reopening, and we are now carrying out the final checks, including for potential explosive hazards," Dujarric said, adding that it "would enable cargo to transit on that road."

He added that for now, "cargo will need to be scanned elsewhere, offloaded from Israeli trucks, and then reloaded onto Palestinian trucks on separate days."

Zikim has been closed for two months, with no supplies entering Gaza directly from the north, he noted.

When asked about Israel's "awfully complicated" entry and distribution of aid, Dujarric said: "I think your description of the process as complicated is an understatement."

"We continue our discussions with our Israeli counterparts. We want to find a way; we keep pushing for ways to simplify this. We hope that cargo will be able to be screened at the crossing itself as soon as possible," he added.

Dujarric also said that "about 4,000 movements" of people were recorded over the past week from southern Gaza to the north, as the UN continues distributing shelter and winter supplies.

Meanwhile, he warned that a damaged "fiber-optic cable near the Erez crossing" has disrupted internet services since Nov. 6, saying partners' repair requests "have been delayed by Israeli authorities and denied."

He cautioned that a "prolonged outage could lead to an Internet blackout across Gaza," jeopardizing humanitarian operations.