Dozens of Israeli protesters attacked a truck in the occupied West Bank, beating its driver and setting it on fire in an apparent attempt to prevent aid from reaching Gaza, the Israeli military said Friday. The Israeli military says soldiers arrived at the scene late in the day and tried to separate the attackers from the driver and provide medical treatment. It says the protesters then attacked the soldiers, lightly injuring two officers and a soldier. According to Israeli media, the truck was carrying ordinary commercial goods, not aid for Gaza.
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Quick Read
- Protest Attack on Truck: Dozens of Israeli protesters attacked a truck in the occupied West Bank, beating its driver and setting the truck on fire to apparently prevent aid from reaching Gaza.
- Military and Medical Response: Israeli soldiers arrived late at the scene to separate the attackers from the driver and provide medical treatment, during which the protesters also attacked the soldiers, lightly injuring two officers and a soldier.
- Truck’s Cargo and Purpose: Contrary to the protesters’ assumption, the truck was reportedly carrying ordinary commercial goods rather than aid destined for Gaza.
- Continued Tensions and Actions: This incident is part of a broader pattern where Israeli protesters have targeted trucks and even destroyed aid in previous instances, aiming to halt supplies to Gaza and pressuring for the release of hostages taken by Hamas during the ongoing conflict.
The Associated Press has the story:
Dozens of Israeli protesters attack a truck in an effort to block Gaza aid
Dozens of Israeli protesters attacked a truck in the occupied West Bank, beating its driver and setting it on fire in an apparent attempt to prevent aid from reaching Gaza, the Israeli military said Friday.
The Israeli military says soldiers arrived at the scene late in the day and tried to separate the attackers from the driver and provide medical treatment. It says the protesters then attacked the soldiers, lightly injuring two officers and a soldier. According to Israeli media, the truck was carrying ordinary commercial goods, not aid for Gaza.
On Friday, trucks carrying badly needed aid for the Gaza Strip rolled across a newly built U.S. floating pier into the besieged enclave for the first time as Israeli restrictions on border crossings and heavy fighting hindered food and other supplies reaching people there.
The shipment is the first in an operation that American military officials anticipate could scale up to 150 truckloads a day entering the Gaza Strip as Israel presses in on the southern city of Rafah and its 7-month offensive against Hamas rages on. No food has entered the two main border crossings in southern Gaza for more than a week. Some 1.1 million Palestinians are on the brink of starvation, according to the U.N.
Israel will respond to charges of genocide at the U.N.‘s top court, where South Africa is seeking emergency measures to halt Israel’s escalating offensive in Rafah, calling the incursion “the last step in the destruction of Gaza.” Israel has portrayed Rafah as Hamas’ last stronghold, brushing off warnings from the United States and other allies that any major operation there would be catastrophic for civilians.
Israel’s defense minister said the military would send more troops into Rafah, a city along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, as fighting also rages in northern Gaza, where Hamas has regrouped.
Around 600,000 Palestinians have been driven out of Rafah since the beginning of last week, the U.N. said. Some 80% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million Palestinians have fled their homes since the start of the war, with many relocating multiple times.
Seven months of war have killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to local health officials.
The war began Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people there, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostage. Israel says militants still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
UN FOOD AGENCY SAYS IT’S DOUBLED AID INTO FAMINE-STRICKEN NORTHERN GAZA THANKS TO NEW LAND ROUTES
CAIRO — The World Food Program says the opening of new land routes allowed it to double its aid operations in northern Gaza, where it says a famine is underway.
But Abeer Etefa, a spokesperson for the U.N. agency, said on Friday that Israel’s incursion into the southern city of Rafah was a “significant setback” that raises fears of a humanitarian catastrophe.
Israel opened a second crossing into the north and took other steps to facilitate aid under heavy pressure from the United States after an Israeli strike killed seven workers with the World Central Kitchen charity last month.
Etefa said the situation in the north has improved, with four bakeries now operating to provide essential bread, but that prices remain high in local markets.
“To roll back six months of near starvation conditions and avert a famine requires steady flows of food supplies, every day, every week, through multiple entry points,” she said.
Meanwhile, in the south, Israel’s seizure of the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt last month forced its closure. Fighting near the Kerem Shalom crossing — Gaza’s main cargo terminal – has made it mostly inaccessible.
Aid delivery began on Friday through an expensive U.S.-built floating pier, but humanitarian groups say it’s no substitute for land routes.
“We have seen the impact of prolonged closures in northern Gaza,” Etefa said. “Despite recent improvements in access to help mitigate a famine there, we are now also deeply concerned about the fate of hundreds of thousands in the south, if a full-scale operation and closures continue.”
GERMANY’S TOP DIPLOMAT AND WESTERN COLLEAGUES WARN ISRAEL TO PROTECT GAZA CIVILIANS
BERLIN – Germany’s foreign minister says that she and several Western colleagues have made clear in a letter to Israel that “the protection of civilians is essential” in Gaza.
The letter was signed by the foreign ministers of Australia, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Britain, Italy, Japan, Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea and Sweden. The group includes all the Group of Seven countries except the United States.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in Strasbourg, France, on Friday that the signatories are united in “incredibly great concern about the fate of around 2 million people in Gaza.” She said the U.S. already made the point bilaterally to Israel “in the same tone and above all with the same substance.”
Germany, one of Israel’s staunchest allies, and others have opposed a large-scale Israeli offensive in Rafah, where much of Gaza’s population has been concentrated following fighting elsewhere.
The German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that the letter was dated Wednesday and addressed to Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz.
DRONE STRIKES KILL 3 IN SOUTHERN LEBANON
BEIRUT — Three separate drone strikes on a coastal village in southern Lebanon on Friday killed three people, including two Syrian citizens, security officials said. The Lebanese militant Hezbollah group later said one of its members was killed in the attack.
The strikes on the village of Najariyeh, about 40 kilometers (28 miles) north of the Israeli border, came a day after an especially intense exchange of cross-border strikes between Hezbollah militants and Israeli forces.
The strikes hit a vehicle, a field and a small brick factory where two Syrian workers were killed, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Hezbollah said its member Hussein Mahdi was killed. The Lebanese security officials said Mahdi was the owner of the brick factory.
Later Friday, the Israeli military said its air force struck infrastructure where Hezbollah fighters operated in Najariyeh. It added that the target included several compounds used by the group that “posed a threat to Israeli aircraft.”
The Lebanon-Israel border has been witnessing almost daily exchanges of fire between Israel troops and Hezbollah fighters since a day after the Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7.
More than 350 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including more than 70 civilians and non-combatants. In Israel, 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed since Oct. 7.
ISRAELI PROTESTERS ATTACK TRUCK IN WEST BANK IN APPARENT ATTEMPT TO STOP AID TO GAZA
Dozens of Israeli protesters attacked a truck in the occupied West Bank, beating its driver and setting it on fire in an apparent attempt to prevent aid from reaching Gaza.
The Israeli military says soldiers arrived at the scene late Thursday and tried to separate the attackers from the driver and provide medical treatment. It says the protesters then attacked the soldiers, lightly wounding two officers and a soldier.
It did not say whether there were any arrests.
Israeli media reported a similar event on Wednesday, saying protesters had halted a truck, emptied its contents into the road and beaten the Palestinian driver.
In both cases, the vehicles targeted were ordinary commercial trucks, not aid trucks bound for Gaza, according to the media reports.
Israeli police, who are primarily responsible for law and order in Israel’s West Bank settlements, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this week, dozens of protesters halted an aid convoy bound for Gaza. They pulled crates of food and other aid off the trucks and destroyed them.
The protesters are opposed to sending aid into Gaza, saying it strengthens Hamas and reduces the pressure on the militants to release scores of hostages abducted in the Oct. 7 attack that ignited the war.
U.N. officials say severe hunger is widespread in Gaza and that northern Gaza is experiencing famine.
Currently:
— U.S. military says first aid shipment has been driven across a newly built pier into the Gaza Strip
— Israel will respond to genocide charges at the U.N. cour t after South Africa urgently requests cease-fire
— Hezbollah introduces new weapons and tactics against Israel as war in Gaza drags on
— A Palestinian converted to Judaism. An Israeli soldier saw him as a threat and opened fire
— For the children of Gaza, war means no school — and no indication when formal learning might return
— FIFA to seek legal advice on a Palestinian proposal to suspend Israel from international soccer
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Gaza at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
