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NITZANA: At the same time as the specter of famine stalks the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, Israeli protesters have gathered repeatedly to cease desperately wanted help from moving into the Palestinian territory.
“You might say it’s not acceptable to block food and water going in,” stated one protester, David Rudman, on the Nitzana border put up between Israel and Egypt.
“But, given the situation we’re in, it’s acceptable,” he argued because the Gaza struggle, siege and hostage disaster have continued right into a fifth month.
The most recent protest on Sunday got here as Hamas threatened to droop talks to free hostages until extra help will get in.
Regardless of these threats, simply over 100 individuals gathered at Nitzana, the place the Egyptian Sinai meets Israel’s Negev desert, with some saying they have been hoping to pile stress on in a bid to free the captives.
Rudman, 35, drove three hours from Jerusalem to forestall meals, gas and medication from moving into Gaza, which Israel has been shelling since Hamas’s October 7 assault.
Undeterred by concrete blocks throughout the highway and armed troopers on patrol, the protesters reached the terminal the place help from Egypt is checked earlier than the vehicles proceed in the direction of Gaza.
Because of this, vehicles ready on the Egyptian facet have been unable to cross into Israel.
“Our aim is to get the hostages back,” stated Rudman.
“There hasn’t been any progress for weeks, and you’re going to see more and more people coming here,” he predicted.
– Despair –
The struggle started with Hamas’s assault that resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, principally civilians, in response to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory marketing campaign in Gaza has killed greater than 29,000 individuals, principally ladies and kids, in response to the territory’s well being ministry.
Some 300,000 individuals stay in northern Gaza, the place more and more determined circumstances have pressured some to grind hen feed for flour.
A primary truce on the finish of November noticed the discharge of 108 hostages out of the greater than 250 kidnapped by Hamas on October 7. Israel says 130 captives are nonetheless in Gaza however 30 could also be lifeless.
“One of my best friends is a hostage in Gaza,” stated Rudman, with out naming the captive. “We hope he’s still alive in Gaza but we don’t know for sure.
“It is not sensible in any respect. On the one hand we give them water, medication and meals however on the opposite we do not also have a listing” of who is being held and their condition.
Families of the hostages have taken to the streets every week to push the Israeli government to accept a deal for their release.
This weekend said they would block the terminal at Nitzana or one further north at Kerem Shalom.
But at Nitzana on Sunday only one member of the hostages’ families turned up and refused to talk, out of fear of reprisals for those being held.
– ‘Unhumanitarian’ aid –
A survey for Israel’s Channel 12 television at the end of January suggested 72 percent of Israelis believed Gaza should not receive any aid while hostages are still being held.
The UN says the protests at Nitzana and Kerem Shalom are blocking trucks from going into Gaza, hitting dwindling stocks.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society on Sunday evening said 123 trucks made it into Gaza via Kerem Shalom, but none had passed through Nitzana because of the protest.
Nili Naouri, head of the far-right group “Israel is Perpetually”, said that “it is utterly immoral to pressure Israel to ship humanitarian convoys of vehicles to those who assist Hamas, who’re holding our individuals hostage, and are collaborating with the enemy”.
On Sunday, members of the organisation turned up to block aid, calling it “unhumanitarian”.
“Hamas aren’t going to gladly free our hostages if we enable help vehicles in for the civilian inhabitants of Gaza,” said Naouri.
Her solution is simple: “Let Gazans go away Gaza” if they want help from the international community.
Hamas, she charged, diverts aid for its own ends.
Some 1.4 million Palestinians have been sheltering in Rafah in the far south of Gaza, many having been displaced several times in a bid to find safety since the start of the war.
With neighbouring Egypt repeatedly rejecting the mass displacement of Palestinians, they have nowhere to go as Israel’s planned ground offensive of Rafah looms.
But David Ickowicz, 39, a regular at the aid blockades, is convinced that his “civil disobedience” serves a purpose.
“Hamas’s leaders reside within the tunnels. However to reside underground and breathe oxygen you want electrical energy produced by gas,” he reasoned.
“Reduce off gas provides and we’ll get them out of the tunnels.”

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