A group of Israeli settlers attacked two Jordanian aid convoys bound for the Gaza Strip early this Wednesday, as reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of this country and published by the state news agency, Petra. It was the first convoy of Jordanian aid trucks to cross through a newly opened border crossing in the north of the strip by Israel.
Four men who “blocked aid trucks (going) to Gaza” near the large West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim were arrested by Israeli police, Honenu, an Israeli legal aid agency, reported.
The convoys were heading towards the crossings of Erez, in the north of the strip, and Kerem Salom, in the southeast, when the attack occurred, causing part of their cargo to fall, including food, flour and other first necessity, on the street.
The Jordanian Government pointed to the Israeli Government as responsible for the attack for failing to guarantee the security of the aid convoys. “It is a flagrant failure to comply with its legal obligations as an occupying power and its duty to facilitate aid access to Gaza,” the state agency states, citing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His spokesman, Sufian Qudah, added that Israel’s lack of protection undermines its claims and commitments to allow aid into Gaza through the Erez crossing, recently reopened following pressure from US President Joe Biden. Qudah urged the international community to unequivocally condemn him.
The two convoys, organized by the Jordan Hashemite Charity in partnership with Tkiyet Um Ali, the World Food Programme, Human Appeal UK, the Imdad Relief Foundation and the International Medical Corps, continued their mission despite the assault. “They successfully reached their destinations, driven by devotion to delivering aid to Gaza amid the humanitarian crisis it faces,” Qudah added.
The day before, the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, had visited the warehouse from which the shipment departed, highlighting the progress but calling for more actions in this direction. Specifically, the head of American diplomacy visited a humanitarian aid loading zone on the outskirts of Amman before flying to Israel to talk with Israeli leaders. He has not yet commented on today’s attacks.
A Jordanian official then explained to Blinken that the aid shipment would feed between 100 and 150 families for about a week, in a territory where the majority of the two million people have been displaced by the war. He acknowledged logistical problems in Gaza, including a lack of drivers and distribution networks.
