ISRAELI protesters blocked aid trucks which were destined for Gaza on Monday as food packages were thrown onto the road.
The lorries, which were set upon at the Tarqumiya checkpoint west of Hebron, came from Jordan and were headed to the Gaza Strip, where people are in desperate need of humanitarian aid.
The US has already condemned the attack, describing the “looting” of aid convoys as a “total outrage”.
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Those behind the attack have said they were demonstrating against the continued detention of Israeli hostages in Gaza.
Videos circulated on social media showed protesters throwing supplies from the trucks onto the ground, with the contents of opened cartons lying spilled across the road.
According to reports in Israeli media, the organisers are a right-wing group called Tzav 9 and it is seeking to halt humanitarian aid transfers while Israeli hostages are held there.
One protester told AFP news agency she was at the checkpoint on Monday because she heard aid trucks were “on their way to the hands of the Hamas, who are trying to kill other soldiers and other Israeli citizens”.
Hana Giat, 33, said “no food should go into Gaza” until Israeli hostages are returned “healthy and alive”.
The UN’s world food programme has already warned that Palestinians in northern Gaza are expecting a “full-blown famine”.
Israeli protesters blocked a column of humanitarian aid sent to Gaza.
— Sprinter infofactory (@Sprinter00000) May 14, 2024
Angry protesters stopped trucks and threw boxes of humanitarian aid from them. pic.twitter.com/ST2te9PG52
In the south, where many Palestinians have sought refuge, the situation has worsened after Israel launched an operation in eastern Rafah, closing the entry point for aid via Egypt.
Aid agencies also say that getting supplies through another southern crossing, Kerem Shalom, is also extremely difficult due to the security situation there.
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Israel has long maintained that it is committed to facilitating deliveries of humanitarian aid into and within Gaza and has accused Hamas of stealing packages designated for civilians.
The incident came on the same day a UN staff member was killed and another injured as they travelled to a hospital in Gaza.
Following Hamas’s attack on Israel in October, during which about 1200 people were killed, more than 35,000 have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
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