On Monday, a mob of Israeli settlers attacked aid trucks carrying food supplies to Gaza. The extremists pillaged the cargo, destroying and smashing supplies desperately needed more than half a year into Israel’s assault on the besieged enclave. Israel’s police and military traded blame, each saying the other should have prevented it, but a senior security official told Haaretz that the rioters received “inside information about the trucks’ movement” from officers.
The incident is emblematic of a pattern that has played out repeatedly for months. Israelis, either vigilante extremists or state officials, block or outright attack humanitarian aid; the United States offers a milquetoast response or extends further favor to Israel; the violence continues and even ramps up. There is ample evidence of the Israeli government looking the other way as these attacks and obstructions on aid delivery play out. None of it is secret — much of it has been documented on camera and spread through social media.
Yet, the State Department, in a long-awaited report on whether Israel was complying with international humanitarian law as it used American weapons, concluded last week that Israel is not blocking aid. The State Department said that it had “deep concerns” about “action and inaction” by the Israeli government resulting in aid delivery to Gaza that “remains insufficient,” but concluded there was not enough evidence to justify cutting off assistance to Israel’s military.
Allison McManus, managing director of the national security and international policy department at the Center for American Progress, said the State Department’s findings are undercut by “the very obvious fact” of indiscriminate attacks on aid workers and civilians in Gaza.
“That is something that everybody can see with their own eyes. The killing of aid workers, the targeting of hospitals, the total destruction of the healthcare system, the massive number of civilian casualties, many of whom are women and children,” McManus said. “That does not happen in a context in which the prosecuting army is adhering to international law.”
AFP via Getty Images
Monday’s rampage was just one of multiple assaults on the aid sector in the days after the State Department issued its findings. That same day, Israeli forces attacked a clearly marked United Nations vehicle in Rafah — killing an Indian national staff member in the process. The targeting of the car raised fears around possible evacuation efforts for upward of 20 American doctors and medical workers stranded in Gaza. The killing did not deter President Joe Biden from moving Tuesday to send another $1 billion in weapons to Israel.
On Wednesday, in the occupied West Bank, settlers attacked a Palestinian truck driver because they thought he was driving an aid truck going to Gaza. Footage shows the victim writhing in pain as Israel Defense Forces officers roam the scene. Israeli police did not arrest any suspects, according to Haaretz.
The settlers deflated the tires of two trucks — which were running commercial routes rather than delivering aid — and set them on fire.
A video posted to Twitter by Alon-Lee Green, co-director of pro-peace organization Standing Together, showed people climbing onto a pillaged truck and dancing.
As Israeli troops looked on, several people took selfies and photos of their own as they climbed the pile of discarded aid bags, the video shows.
More than 250 aid workers have been killed in Gaza since Hamas’s attack on October 7. Human Rights Watch has identified at least eight instances of Israeli forces attacking aid convoys and premises. Some of these incidents took place despite aid groups providing their coordinates to the Israeli government to ensure their protection.
Among the incidents addressed in last week’s State Department report is Israel’s strike against a World Central Kitchen convoy that killed seven aid workers last month. The State Department said it could not reach “definitive conclusions” on whether U.S.-supplied weapons were used during that attack.
The State Department conceded such attacks “created an exceptionally difficult environment for distributing and delivering aid,” but did not describe such efforts as a systematic Israeli policy.
A recent report by U.K.-based research group Forensic Architecture has found at least 80 separate Israeli attacks on aid in Gaza since January alone.
The group stated that the frequency and widespread nature of these attacks suggest that Israel is systematically targeting aid.
In response, an IDF spokesperson told The Intercept that the military takes all operationally feasible measures to mitigate harm to civilians, including aid convoys and workers. The spokesperson emphasized that the IDF does not intentionally target aid convoys and workers, and makes extensive efforts to enable the safe delivery of humanitarian aid.
Despite these claims, videos have shown Israeli demonstrators blocking and destroying aid meant for Gaza in the presence of authorities. These demonstrations have increased after the International Court of Justice found Israel plausibly committing genocide and ordered aid distribution.
Efforts to block aid deliveries in full sight of Israeli authorities have continued this month, with demonstrators even setting fire to the headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East. Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Aryeh King has supported these attacks, and basic aid facilitation in Gaza has been substandard. During the initial two weeks following the assault, Gaza faced a severe “hermetic siege,” with significant delays in aid deliveries. Even after aid shipments resumed, the process slowed down considerably. According to information from the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, only 127 trucks were allowed to enter Gaza per day as of May 15th.
The Israeli government imposed structural barriers on aid distribution, preventing UNRWA from reaching the northern part of Gaza, which has recently received additional displacement notices due to renewed attacks. Aid delivery has been a challenge at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, where in January, hundreds of aid trucks were held up for weeks awaiting approval to enter Gaza.
Democratic Senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley personally witnessed the difficulties in aid distribution and blamed the slow process on arbitrary rejections of essential humanitarian supplies. In May, Israel closed the Rafah border crossing as part of a ground invasion into the area, where 1.4 million displaced Palestinians sought refuge. Please rephrase this sentence.
Source link
