Tel Aviv – Last year, hungry Gazans were waiting for more food to enter the besieged area of Israel. After aid trucks were allowed in, there were episodes of looting.
But now, armed gangs are blocking all convoys.
Truck driver Abu Ahmad was in the worst incident to date when more than 100 trucks were attacked on Saturday. The bandits shot out the windows of his truck, he told CBS News, saying they would kill any driver who didn’t stop.
Ahmad said Israeli tanks were close by and Israeli intelligence was watching the entire attack unfold.
However, the Israeli military says it is not responsible for protecting aid supplies, a position that former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert disagrees with.
“The Israeli government doesn’t want it to happen. They want to punish the Palestinians, because the basic premise is that all the Palestinians in Gaza are supporting terrorists and therefore they should all be punished,” Olmert told CBS News, adding that. if the Israeli army is able to build roads in Gaza, it must “be able to make the necessary arrangements” to provide humanitarian support to the people living there.
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On Thursday, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Mohammed Deif, the leader of Hamas that Israel claims was killed in the July airstrike. The charges include “crimes against humanity” and using “starvation as a means of war.”
Netanyahu called the allegations “unnatural,” and the White House said it “rejected” the decision.
Already, the poorest Gazans are scavenging for food in the dumps as pitifully little aid flows across the Israeli border. Much of what makes it into Gaza is stolen at gunpoint, making the humanitarian situation in the area very difficult.
It has become clear who must solve it, according to Juliette Touma, spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza.
“It is up to Israel to ensure that aid reaches the people who need it,” said Touma. “They are a powerhouse of food.”
Gaza’s local police used to protect convoys in Gaza, but since February the Israeli army has targeted them, accusing them of links to Hamas.
At that time, about two million Gazans they fight to survive.
“But wanting to starve them, hundreds of thousands of people, to prevent them from getting the food, the water they need to live, is violence, it is unacceptable and I think the Israeli government is creating something that may backfire on us in a very painful way,” said Olmert.
Elizabeth Palmer
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