Following religious settlers sparking international and domestic condemnation for attacking aid convoys on their way to Gaza earlier this week, an Israeli-led public campaign to raise funds for a protection force to accompany the convoy and safeguard the aid has in less than two days received over 500 donations.
The online initiative ‘The Humanitarian Guard: Defending the Aid Convoys’, organised by Standing Together, a joint Israeli-Arab coexistence group, wrote: “While the starvation in Gaza is only getting worse, extreme right-wing settlers are raiding the aid trucks for people in Gaza, looting them, spilling the flour and food, and burning produce. And where is Ben Gvir’s police force? As usual: silent and enabling their criminal activity.
“We call on our fellow citizens: join the force resisting against this terror, come to protect humanity, defeat the forces of death, destruction, and starvation, and protect the humanitarian aid trucks.”
The donations will help finance “protective shifts and legal assistance,” of the force.
The website hosting the fundraiser does not disclose the total amount raised, but donations ranged from around $30 to $500.
Extremist settlers, organised by the group Order 9, targeted lorries carrying aid on Monday at the Tarqumiya checkpoint in the West Bank, claiming the aid was going “directly into the hands of Hamas,”
They argued that if Hamas continues to receive aid, they will be deluded into thinking it has a “possibility of total control over the Gaza Strip” and will then never show an interest in agreeing to a deal that would secure the release of the more than 100 Israeli hostages they still hold captive.
Footage of the looting emerged on social media and appeared to show the settlers throwing boxes of food and supplies on the ground in view of IDF soldiers who took no action against them.
Settlers blocked and vandalised the lorries, setting at least one on fire. They also targeted the Palestinian drivers themselves, causing one to be taken to hospital after being attacked.
Adel Amer, of the West Bank hauliers union, estimated that about $2million worth of damage was done and around 15 trucks had been damaged.
The Israeli military said the incident, which drew widespread international condemnation, was being investigated.
Israel’s own leader of the opposition, Yair Lapid, criticised the extremist settlers on Wednesday. He said: “The violent rioting and blockade of humanitarian supplies is directly damaging security interests, undermining international relations, and serves only Hamas.”
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said it is “a total outrage that there are people who are attacking and looting these convoys from Jordan, going to Gaza to deliver humanitarian assistance.
“We are looking at the tools that we have to respond to this. We are also raising our concerns at the highest level of the Israeli government and it’s something that we have no bones about – this is completely and utterly unacceptable behaviour.”
UK Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron called on Israel to “hold attackers to account and do more to allow aid in,
“Attacks by extremists on aid convoys en route to Gaza are appalling,” he said, adding that he would be raising his concerns with the Israeli government.
