Israel stands by as aid convoys come under attack in Gaza

Tel Aviv — For the past year, hungry Gazans have waited in desperation for more food to enter the besieged territory from Israel. After aid trucks have been allowed in, there have been episodes of looting. 

But now, armed criminal gangs are intercepting entire convoys.

Truck driver Abu Ahmad was in the worst incident so far when more than 100 trucks were attacked on Saturday. The gangs shot through the windows of his truck, he told CBS News, saying they would kill any driver who didn’t stop.

Ahmad said Israeli tanks were nearby and an Israeli drone watched the entire attack unfold.

However, Israel’s military says it is not responsible for protecting the aid convoys, a premise with which former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert disagrees.

“The Israeli government doesn’t want it to happen. They want to punish the Palestinians, because the basic premise is that all of the Palestinians in Gaza support the terrorists and therefore they all should be punished,” Olmert told CBS News, adding that if the Israeli army is able to build roads in Gaza, it should be “capable of making the necessary logistical arrangements” to provide humanitarian support for the people that live there.

On Thursday, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Mohammed Deif, a Hamas leader who Israel claims was killed in a July airstrike. The charges included “crimes against humanity” and using “starvation as a method of warfare.”

Netanyahu called the allegations “antisemitic,” and the White House said it “fundamentally rejected” the decision.

Already, the poorest Gazans scavenge for food in garbage dumps as pitifully little aid gets across the Israeli border. Much of what does make it into Gaza is being stolen at gunpoint, exacerbating the territory’s humanitarian crisis.  

It’s clear who needs to solve it, according to Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza.

“It is up to the state of Israel to ensure that aid reaches people in need,” Touma said. “They are the occupying power.”

Local Gaza police used to protect the convoys in Gaza, but since February Israeli soldiers have been targeting them, accusing them of links with Hamas.

Meanwhile, almost two million Gazans are struggling to survive.

“But to want to starve them, hundreds of thousands of people, to prevent them getting the food, the water which they need for survival, is atrocious, unacceptable and I think that the Israeli government is creating something that may be come back to haunt us in a very, very painful way,” Olmert said.

Elizabeth Palmer

Elizabeth Palmer is CBS News’ senior foreign correspondent. She is based in the CBS News London Bureau, and reports on major events across Europe and the Middle East. Palmer was previously based in Tokyo, and before that in Moscow, for CBS News.