At the Kerem Shalom border crossing, Israeli protesters prevent aid deliveries to Gaza
January 28, 2024, 7:40 pm Listen to the article
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Aid deliveries to residents of the Gaza Strip only reach those in need through two entrances. One of them is the Kerem Shalom border crossing. Around 200 Israeli protesters blocked this route. Some of them are relatives of Hamas hostages.
Israeli protesters blocked humanitarian aid from entering the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom border crossing. “About 200 protesters” gathered in the crossing area, said Cogat, the Israeli authority for civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories. As one correspondent reported, protesters are refusing help until all hostages kidnapped in Palestinian territory by the radical Islamic group Hamas and its allies have been released.
The Israeli army declared that the area around the crossing was now a “closed military zone”. Some of the protesters are relatives of hostages, the reporter reported, citing the protesters' statements. “We are not friends with the people of the Gaza Strip, they are our enemies and the enemies are not helped,” said protester Batia Cheremberg from Beit Shemesh, more than 100 kilometers away.
There are only two entrances available for delivering aid to residents of the Gaza Strip: the Kerem Shalom border crossing runs from southern Israel into Palestinian territory, while the Rafah crossing is on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. The Israelis had already demonstrated at the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Thursday and Friday and prevented trucks carrying aid deliveries from entering.
According to Israeli information, the Palestinian organization Hamas, classified as a terrorist organization by the US and the EU, killed around 1,140 people and took around 250 others hostage in the Gaza Strip in its brutal major attack on Israel on October 7. Since then, Israel has undertaken massive military actions in the Gaza Strip, with the stated aim of destroying Hamas.