Radical settlers in the West Bank want to prevent aid deliveries from reaching the population in the Gaza Strip. That’s why they are increasingly attacking trucks transporting relief supplies.
These incidents are happening almost every day now; almost every day, trucks carrying humanitarian aid from Jordan to the Gaza Strip are attacked by Israeli settlers.
It is happening in the West Bank: videos on social media sometimes show a truck burning, sometimes a driver is injured. It is always about destroying food, which then ends up on the streets.
Peace activists have recently also been at the checkpoints to secure the transports and document cases of this settler violence.
The settlers care about Hamas
“No food for Hamas” is the motto of the settlers. Uri Weltman, one of the activists, sees things differently. He says the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is terrible. It affects civilians in particular and also the Israeli hostages held by Hamas. If there is hunger in Gaza, they will starve too.
It is also currently dangerous for truck drivers. Not only because Hamas has repeatedly fired rockets at Kerem Shalom, the most important border crossing to the Gaza Strip for transport, over the past week. Abu Omar, a Palestinian driver, speaks openly about his fear. Because the settlers, he says, could attack anywhere. They have WhatsApp groups and can gather 100 to 150 people in 15 to 20 minutes.
In recent days, convoys of trucks have been seen, some of which were accompanied by security forces. Abu Omar says that when he is travelling alone, he tries to take side roads and avoid the main road.
Cindy Cohen, an activist, is already pretty nervous that day. She is standing at the Tarqumiya checkpoint. The violence she is witnessing is making her angry. Later in the day, she will collect food from the street that the settlers have pushed off the truck. She hopes that they will still make it to Gaza. It makes her angry, she says, to see people holding up humanitarian aid so that other people who are neighbors can go hungry.
Criticism also from the USA
There is now also international protest because these are no longer isolated cases, because the settlers are well organized and apparently act systematically.
Jake Sullivan, the US President’s national security adviser, was in the region to discuss the situation in Gaza. Now there were also attacks on auxiliary trucks:
It is outrageous that there are people attacking and looting these convoys coming from Jordan to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza. We look at the tools we have to respond. And we are raising our concerns at the highest levels of the Israeli government. There is no doubt about it, this is completely unacceptable behavior.
An expression of democracy?
It is at least partly doubtful whether this criticism will reach the Israeli government. Itamar Ben Gvir is Minister for National Security and is therefore responsible for the police, which should actually protect the trucks carrying aid deliveries to Gaza.
Two days ago he said on Israel’s Channel 13 that this is democracy. He could not approve of trucks being set on fire or violence, but there was a right to demonstrate.
Furthermore, he is ashamed that he was the only one in the cabinet who voted against the aid deliveries.
Israel repeatedly emphasizes its great efforts to allow more humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and, in fact, the number of trucks entering the area has increased in the meantime.
However, according to the UN, hundreds of thousands of people are still suffering from hunger there – while radical settlers are already planning to attack more trucks in the next few days.
Jan-Christoph Kitzler, ARD Tel Aviv, tagesschau, May 22, 2024 8:41 a.m