Martin Griffiths says the Karem Abu Salem border crossing may open “soon” to facilitate aid deliveries to Gaza.

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said the Karem Abu Salem border crossing, known in Israel as Kerem Shalom, between Israel and Gaza could soon open to allow the delivery of more humanitarian aid the war-torn Palestinian territory.

“We are still negotiating,” Griffiths told reporters in Geneva on Thursday. “There are now promising signs that this could open soon.”

Aid is currently reaching Gaza via the EU Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border. The opening of Karem Abu Salem would be “the first miracle we have seen in several weeks, but would also represent a huge boost to the logistical process and basis of a humanitarian operation,” Griffiths said.

The UN aid chief stressed the need for more sustainable and organized aid delivery. “We no longer have a humanitarian operation in southern Gaza that could bear that name,” he said.

“What we have at the moment… [is] humanitarian opportunism at best,” he said, adding that the passage of trucks was based on chance rather than planning. “It’s unpredictable, unreliable and, frankly, unsustainable.”

Speaking to reporters in Israel, Colonel Elad Goren, head of the civil department at COGAT, the Israeli agency for civil coordination with the Palestinians, said: “We will only open Kerem Shalom for inspection. It will happen in the next few days.”

Goren said a COGAT team is in discussions with the United States, the United Nations and Egypt about how to increase the volume of humanitarian assistance. He said Israel wants the international community to expand its capabilities.

“We won’t be the problem. We will adapt to all needs. The need lies with the United Nations. If they tell us there is a need for 200 trucks and they have the capacity to move them, that’s not a problem,” Goren said.

The United Nations said on Monday that aid teams had only “extremely limited” freedom of movement in the south, where civilians were fleeing, and that access to the north was “now completely blocked.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday invoked Article 99 of the UN Charterin which he called on the UN Security Council to take action against the war in Gaza.

Article 99 allows the Secretary-General to “bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may jeopardize the maintenance of international peace and security.”

Griffiths stressed that the entire humanitarian community is behind the move. “Stop fighting, let’s bring about an immediate ceasefire,” he said.

Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour expressed hope that the Security Council would adopt a resolution on Friday calling for a ceasefire. To pass a resolution, at least nine yes votes and no veto are required from the five permanent members, namely the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom.

“We hope for a successful action by the Security Council,” Mansour told reporters.

About 1.8 million Palestinians live in the southern Gaza Strip after the Israeli military issued the order to leave northern Gaza in mid-October.

The United Nations and NGOs warn of the spread of diseases, including cholera, due to the total collapse of the sanitation system and lack of clean water.

Arwa Damon, founder of the NGO Inara, which works with injured refugee children, told Al Jazeera that some medical conditions were more likely to be more severe for those displaced due to malnutrition in Gaza.

“Children as malnourished as the children in Gaza today… hypothermia can set in at much higher temperatures,” she said.

The Israeli attack on Gaza has killed at least 17,177 people, including more than 7,000 children, in two months, according to Palestinian authorities.

Damon said the suffering in the besieged strip was unimaginable. “In my 20 years as a war correspondent, I have never seen anything like this,” she said. “I haven’t even seen anything like it.”