Relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages being held by Hamas have attempted to block humanitarian aid entering Gaza over the past week, gathering at border crossings to protest and to obstruct truck convoys of supplies being sent through Israel.
Israel has allowed dozens of trucks of humanitarian aid to enter Gaza, after inspection, since shortly after the war began. It has allowed the aid to flow despite evidence that much of it is stolen by Hamas terrorists and armed gangs, and kept from civilians.
Meanwhile, families of Israeli hostages, over 130 of whom are still thought to be in captivity — though not all are thought to be alive — are becoming desperate, protesting not only in favor of a hostage deal but against humanitarian aid being sent into Gaza.
They argue that Palestinians, and Hamas, should not receive food, fuel, water, and medicine if there is no guarantee that hostages are also receiving aid. Hamas is already thought to have broken an agreement to bring medications to hostages that require them.
As the Times of Israel notes, protesters succeeded in blocking at least some aid trucks from entering Gaza via the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and southern Gaza on four successive days, from last Wednesday through this past Sunday.
The Times added Tuesday:
While protesters have been kept away today from the area of the Kerem Shalom border crossing with Gaza due to authorities declaring a closed military zone there, many have been blocking the Nitzana border crossing, preventing aid trucks from entering since this morning.
Activists and relatives of hostages have been blocking the crossings over the past week, aiming to prevent trucks with humanitarian aid from entering as long as the Hamas terror group continues to hold 136 hostages and deny them their basic rights.
The hostage families have wide support in Israel, even if many Israelis also support helping Palestinian civilians.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the 2021 e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now updated with a new foreword. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.