CAT-AND-MOUSE

Far-Right Israeli Settlers Coordinate Attacks on Aid to Starve Gazans: WaPo

Settler violence in the West Bank increases as famine in Gaza only grows more catastrophic.

Radical Israeli settlers are coordinating their attacks on aid convoys passing through the West Bank, using a mix of public WhatsApp groups and tips from Israeli soldiers to stop desperately needed food and supplies from reaching Gaza. A report by The Washington Post revealed how the far-right settlers, many of them young radicals, quickly share photos of trucks that appear to be filled with aid, locate them, and then ransack or destroy their loads. They set up checkpoints and interrogate drivers, sometimes tailing vehicles until they can stop them. In at least two cases, the settlers beat Palestinian drivers so badly they had to be hospitalized. Fahed Arar, the owner of one of the seized trucks, told The Post his shipment was actually headed for a town in the West Bank, not Gaza, but the settlers destroyed his cargo anyway. “The attack happened in front of the army,” Arar said, adding that the IDF soldiers did nothing to stop it. Famine is already widespread in Gaza, the U.N. has warned repeatedly.