Despite government efforts to curtail the protests, hundreds of Israeli protesters made their way to the Kerem Shalom border crossing to demonstrate against deliveries of humanitarian aid to Gaza on Monday.
Following five consecutive days of protests, the Israel Defence Forces designated the area as a closed military zone to curtail the now-daily gatherings. Nevertheless, the turnout was larger, but unlike previous days, nobody blocked trucks. Police made 13 arrests, including one army reservist who was protesting in uniform.
The passage of aid deliveries is controversial. Israelis say that food, water, and fuel are stolen by Hamas once they arrive inside the Strip.
Protesters chanted, “Don’t feed Hamas.”
Among the Monday protesters was Noga Alfasi, whose 56-year-old aunt, Maya Goren, was murdered in captivity.
“I did not come here to starve the people, and I did not come to abuse the people. And I think I even came here for the Gazans somewhere. If we just go ahead and give aid and spread this whole thing, the war won’t end,” Alfasi told the Tazpit Press Service.
“My aunt was kidnapped from a kindergarten. That’s not humanitarian. They murdered her that way and that’s not humanitarian,” Alfasi noted, stressing that information about her aunt’s death came from intelligence and not from Hamas. “And that is not humanitarian,” she added.
Under the terms of a temporary ceasefire in November, Hamas was supposed to return all the captive women and children alive or dead, but Goren’s body remains in Gaza.
“If this aid is done out of mercy, then I don’t understand who the mercy is for,” said Alfasi.
Another protester, Rina Ariel, explained to TPS why she traveled from Kiryat Arba to participate.
At a Saturday evening press conference, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters that a degree of aid was necessary to continue the war to free hostages and remove Hamas from control of Gaza.-TIN Bureau