Germany’s DPA news agency reports that foreign ministers from 13 countries have signed a letter warning Israel to halt its ground invasion of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip and to allow more aid to reach the Palestinian population, Al Jazeera reports.

Citing a report in Germany’s Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, DPA said that apart from the United States, all other members of the Group of Seven (G7) major industrialised nations signed the four-page letter which was dated Wednesday.

In the letter sent to Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz, the ministers called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to alleviate the devastating and worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza by opening all border crossings for aid supplies, including the Rafah crossing with Egypt, which is under Israeli military control.

The letter was signed by the foreign ministers of the G7 states: Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Japan and Canada, as well as their counterparts from Australia, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea and Sweden.