Israeli settlers attack aid convoy of 98 trucks heading to Gaza from Jordan

A group of Israeli settlers attacked a large Jordanian aid convoy in the West Bank while it was en route to the Gaza Strip on Monday, in the third such incident this month.

A total of 98 trucks carrying food and relief supplies were coming from Jordan early on Monday when dozens of settlers blocked their route at the Tarkumiya and Kiryat Arba checkpoints that lie near Israeli settlements in the south of Hebron, Adel Amr — a member of the Shipping Syndicate in Palestine — told the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency.

They damaged the trucks’ tires and vandalized the cargo, throwing the parcels of food on the ground and tearing them apart, according to Amr.

Videos circulating online showed settlers climbing a truck and throwing food supplies, as others waved the Israeli flag.

Similar attacks against aid convoys heading to the Gaza Strip, where the seven-month war continues to rage, have occurred in the past few weeks.

Last Tuesday, dozens of far-right Israelis blocked the roads at the Latrun junction near Jerusalem, preventing aid trucks coming from Jordan from passing through. They also attacked the convoy, damaged their content and dumped the food supplies on the ground.

Israeli police later said six people were arrested in connection with the incident.

Jordan’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attack on its aid convoy that was heading to the Erez crossing with the Gaza Strip in southern Israel. In a statement last Tuesday, Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesman Sufyan Qudah said the kingdom holds Israel responsible for the attack and considers the Israeli government's failure to prevent such incidents a “violation of its legal obligations.”

Earlier on May 1, two Jordanian aid convoys came under attack by settlers near the West Bank settlement of Ma'ale Adumim.

Jordan, through the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO) and in coordination with the Jordanian army, has sent tons of food and relief supplies to the Gaza Strip, where the humanitarian situation is deteriorating.

JHCO Secretary-General Hussein Shibli said in a statement last Tuesday that the kingdom has dispatched a total of 1,280 aid trucks to the Gaza Strip via land routes since the war erupted Oct. 7. He added that 57 aircraft carrying urgent relief supplies have so far landed at Egypt’s Al-Arish airport, and 92 Jordanian airdrops have been carried out.

Monday’s attack comes one day after Israel announced the opening of a new border crossing into the northern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli military said the opening of the so-called Western Erez Crossing comes as “part of efforts to increase aid routes to the Gaza Strip and to the northern Gaza Strip in particular.”

It added in a statement that dozens of trucks of flour belonging to the UN’s World Food Program entered Gaza through the new crossing.

Last Wednesday, Israel reopened the Kerem Shalom crossing with northern Gaza days after it was closed due to a rocket attack that killed four Israeli soldiers near the crossing.

Life-saving assistance had been mainly entering the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, which the Israeli military seized control of last week as it presses ahead with its planned invasion of the city of Rafah.

Since then, the crossing has been closed amid mounting concerns over the deteriorating humanitarian conditions inside the war-stricken enclave.

The United Nations warned on Sunday of a “dire shortage” of aid coming into Gaza.

In a press statement, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said he was “deeply distressed by the fast deterioration in Gaza as Israeli forces intensify their airstrikes.”