Israel halts humanitarian aid flow into northern Gaza

BarcelonaIsrael has stopped the entry of aid into northern Gaza, although it keeps the southern route open. Benjamin Netanyahu's government has justified the measure by saying that Hamas is seizing aid intended for civilians. On Wednesday, a video circulated online showing dozens of masked men, some armed with rifles but most with sticks, traveling in aid trucks. But the Higher Commission for Tribal Affairs quickly explained that they were its men, protecting the aid trucks to deliver aid to the population. However, Israel blocked the northern aid route.

The Higher Commission for Tribal Affairs represents the influential clans in Gaza. Made up of extended families connected by blood and marriage, they have long been a fundamental part of Palestinian society in the Strip. The Commission's statement asserted that the humanitarian aid trucks had been protected "solely through tribal efforts," without intervention by any Palestinian faction, a reference to Hamas. The Islamist organization itself, which has ruled Gaza for more than two decades but now only controls parts of the territory after nearly two years of war with Israel, denied any involvement, according to Reuters.

“The clans came to take a stand to prevent the aggressors and thieves from stealing the food that belongs to our people,” said Abu Salman Al Moghani, a representative of the Gaza clans, referring to Wednesday’s operation. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a joint statement that same day with Defense Minister Israel Katz, said the military had been ordered to present a plan to prevent Hamas from taking control of humanitarian aid. Wednesday’s video was shared on X by former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Netanyahu’s most viable rival in the upcoming elections, who claimed that Hamas had seized control of the aid allowed into Gaza by the Israeli government.

The new obstacle to the entry of humanitarian aid further aggravates the situation of hunger and devastation suffered by the population of Gaza, which had been overshadowed by Israel's war against Iran. In the twelve days of this military confrontation between Tel Aviv and Tehran, more than 800 Palestinians have died in Gaza., amid Israeli bombings and military attacks and gunfire fired at people coming to collect food at the aid distribution points set up by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, run by former US mercenaries with support from the Israeli army.

This entity still operates in southern and central Gaza, and one of its spokespersons explained to X that they are the only organization allowed to distribute aid, and that they are exempt from a two-day suspension of humanitarian aid deliveries to the territory. But their distribution points have become a death trap for dozens of starving Palestinians who end up shot when they try to collect food for their families. Since the start of Israel's war on Gaza, following the Hamas attacks that left 1,200 dead and 250 kidnapped on October 7, 2023, The Israeli army has killed 56,000 Palestinians, many of whom were children.

In this context, the words of the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, this Thursday in Brussels denouncing the "catastrophic situation of "Gaza genocide" has raised an uproar in Israel, accusing him of defending a "morally indefensible" position and of being "on the wrong side of history." Meanwhile, in the West Bank, Israeli settler harassment of the Palestinian population has also worsened, with 23 settler attacks on Palestinians documented by the UN, including "arsons, murders, and vandalism of olive groves," with fourteen injured.