The war in Gaza is being fought on multiple fronts.
One of them is aid.
Months after some Israelis began protesting aid trucks entering the main Kerem Shalom intersection in the Gaza Strip, the fighting has moved to other key intersections, where rival activist groups have attempted to block or protect aid convoys. I'm doing my best.
In recent weeks, social media has been flooded with images of aid trucks being blocked and looted.
Right-wing activists, including Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, have uploaded dozens of videos showing crowds, including very young children, throwing food on the ground and stepping on aid boxes.
“It is important to stop the aid,” said one activist. “That’s the only way we can win. “It’s the only way to get the hostages back.”
Many argue that Gaza residents should receive nothing while Israeli hostages are held captive, and that aid to Gaza will only help prolong the war.
In one video, a group of cheering protesters celebrate by dancing on top of a looted truck.
Elsewhere, one of the stranded trucks is on fire.
Another video shows Israeli vigilantes stopping a truck in Jerusalem and demanding that the driver show documents proving he is not transporting aid to Gaza. Their faces are not revealed and they appear to act with impunity.
In the West Bank, at least two drivers who were not carrying goods bound for Gaza were dragged out of their taxis and beaten.
Palestinian truck drivers said they were traumatized.
“I’m afraid of reaching the crossing point,” Adel Amro told the BBC.
“I fear for my life.”
At the time of his arrest, Mr. Amro was transporting commercially purchased goods from the West Bank to Gaza. Other targeted drivers are involved in transporting aid supplies from Jordan, which must cross the West Bank and Israel before reaching the Gaza Strip.
“We are now taking side roads away from the main route for fear of aggression from settlers,” he said.
