Attacks by Israeli protesters on Gaza aid complicate humanitarian efforts

livemint.com:

Small groups of Israeli protesters have attacked a number of aid trucks headed to Gaza from the West Bank and Israel in recent weeks, complicating efforts by the international community to help more than two million Palestinians stuck inside the strip survive the continuing conflict. Scores of Israelis have organized protests against the delivery of humanitarian aid into the strip throughout the war, including at a southern border crossing with Israel where trucks were entering Gaza. But more recent protests have turned violent, with instances of truck drivers getting attacked.

The incidents show how resentment has built inside some Israeli communities—especially the more religious settler communities in the occupied West Bank—toward Israeli authorities for allowing aid deliveries into the strip for Palestinian civilians, when some 128 Israeli hostages taken on Oct. 7 remain in the enclave, held by Hamas and other militant groups. Many who are against the aid say no help should be delivered until the hostages are released.

The Israeli military said it received a report Thursday night that dozens of Israeli citizens had attacked an Israeli driver who was wounded and whose truck was set on fire at the Kochav HaShachar junction in the West Bank. It said that three military officers and soldiers were then injured as the military intervened. In an incident near the Tarqumiyah checkpoint in the West Bank on Monday, protesters unloaded boxes of aid from a truck and threw them on the ground, according to footage by Reuters.