Israeli protesters block aid convoy heading for Gaza

Israeli protesters have vandalised aid trucks headed for Gaza.

Footage showed protesters throwing supplies from trucks on to the ground at the Tarqumiya checkpoint, west of Hebron in the Israeli occupied West Bank, on Monday.

Bags of what looks like flour and grain were split open, with the contents pouring on to the floor.

One protester was seen being dragged away by Israeli border police while other demonstrators were heard shouting in Hebrew.

Further south of the checkpoint, numerous trucks were seen abandoned at the side of the road, the aid that they were carrying piled up on the street.

One of the trucks appeared to have been set alight, with the front carriage burnt out.

Sky News employees on the ground in Israel witnessed another protest as a group of around 10 people stood directly in front of a convoy of trucks.

Half of the group were sat down, while a separate group could be seen in the background holding Israeli flags. All the trucks eventually made it through into Gaza.

It comes as four protesters, including a minor, were arrested on Monday for ruining vital aid being sent to Gaza.

The Order 9 group, which organised the protest, claimed the aid being delivered into the enclave was going “directly into the hands of Hamas”.

It said if aid keeps being delivered and Hamas thinks it has a “possibility of total control over the Gaza Strip” it will never show interest in agreeing a deal that would secure the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages.

‘Appalling’ attacks

The protests have drawn criticism from the UK’s Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron, who 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. “Gazans are at risk of famine and in desperate need of supplies. I will be raising my concerns with the Israeli government.”

US state department deputy, Vedant Patel, also warned Israel that humanitarian assistance should not be impended.

The Israeli military said the incident is being investigated.

Palestinian truck drivers said they have been left fearing for their safety, according to a member of the West Bank hauliers union.

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Adel Amer said around 15 trucks had been damaged by Israeli protesters, who he claimed beat some of the drivers and caused about $2m worth of damage.

“The drivers are now refusing to take goods to Gaza because they are afraid,” he said. “It’s a disaster here because of the settlers.”

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) has said it is struggling to distribute food to the estimated 360,000 people who have fled Rafah – Gaza’s southernmost city – following an evacuation order by the Israel Defence Forces.

Abeer Etefa, a spokeswoman for WFP, said workers are still distributing food from its remaining stocks in the areas of Khan Younis in the south and Deir al Balah further north, where many of those escaping Rafah have fled, but supplies are running low.

Inside Rafah, only two organisations partnering with WFP were still able to distribute food, and no bakeries are operating, while in the north, the UN has warned of widespread hunger causing a “full-blown famine”.

Despite this, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains committed to the offensive in Gaza – where more than 35,000 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

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Speaking at a ceremony on the outskirts of Jerusalem commemorating fallen soldiers on Monday, he said: “We exacted and will exact a high price from the enemy for their criminal acts. We will realise the goals of victory and at the centre of them the return of all our hostages.”

His government has refused Hamas’s central demands for an end to the war and the withdrawal of its forces, even in the face of impatience from the US – Israel’s biggest ally – which has threatened to suspend the delivery of weapons if it continues with plans of a ground offensive on Rafah.

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