The Israel Defense Forces prevented a group of protesters from blocking humanitarian aid trucks preparing to enter the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Thursday .
Dozens of demonstrators arrived in the area of the crossing near the Egyptian and Gaza borders in what organizers said was an attempt to stop “Hamas trucks” and “Nazi trucks” from entering the coastal enclave ruled by the Hamas terrorist group responsible for the Oct. 7 murder of 1,200 persons in Israel.
While Israel recently opened the Kerem Shalom for the transfer of goods after being pressured by the United States, Hamas is stealing much of the aid intended for Gazan civilians and redirecting it to terrorists hiding in tunnels.
Israel has been in a war to eliminate Hamas in Gaza following the Oct. 7 massacre.
The demonstration was organized by Torat IDF, a group working to strengthen the Jewish identity of Israel’s fighting personnel, and the Mothers’ March, representing parents of IDF soldiers fighting in Gaza.
The protesters waved Israeli flags and held up signs accusing the government of helping the enemy, with one reading “Aid to the enemy kills soldiers.”
“There are briefings from the police as if the location of the demonstration against the Nazi trucks in Kerem Shalom has changed. This is not true. The demonstration is taking place as usual at the Kerem Shalom Crossing; we will not allow aid to the enemy who harms our fighters, our sons,” Sima Hasson, the mother of two soldiers in the Golani and Paratroopers brigades, as well as chairman of the Mothers’ March, told The Jewish Voice.
The protesters were reportedly stopped near Kibbutz Urim, some 15 miles from Kerem Shalom, while other people were walking along Route 10 along the Israel-Egypt border.
The Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit said on Thursday morning that on Wednesday, 165 trucks carrying 3,225 tons of food, water, medical supplies, shelter equipment and other items entered Gaza through Kerem Shalom and the smaller Nitzana crossing.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday said that more humanitarian aid could be entering Gaza after Israeli inspections, blaming the United Nations for slowing the process down.
“Unfortunately, due to the utter failure of the U.N. in its work with other partners in the region, they have been unable to bring in more than 125 trucks [of aid] a day,” Herzog said in a meeting at his official residence in Jerusalem with French Senate President Gérard Larcher.
“Today, it is possible to provide three times the amount of humanitarian aid to Gaza if the U.N.—instead of complaining all day—would do its job,” Herzog added.
Israel is inspecting hundreds of trucks per day at Kerem Shalom and Nitzana, but Jerusalem says that many of those trucks are then stuck waiting to enter the Strip.
