{"id":31719,"date":"2024-02-12T21:38:44","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T05:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=31719"},"modified":"2024-02-12T21:40:16","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T05:40:16","slug":"young-israelis-block-aid-to-gaza-while-idf-soldiers-stand-and-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/02\/12\/young-israelis-block-aid-to-gaza-while-idf-soldiers-stand-and-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Israelis block aid to Gaza while IDF soldiers stand and watch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Loveday Morris<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

February 10, 2024 at 5:35 p.m. EST (WashingtonPost.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Israeli protesters stand near the border wall with Egypt at the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza. Israelis in their teens and 20s began occupying the crossing on Wednesday to stop the delivery of humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave. (Lorenzo Tugnoli for The Washington Post)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

KEREM SHALOM, Israel \u2014 It\u2019s approaching 1 a.m. Yosef de Bresser, 22, is in the thick of planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He fields calls from the car as it zips along dirt roads just outside southern Gaza near Egypt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAre people there?\u201d he asks. Around 40, he\u2019s told.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He taps out a WhatsApp message to rally more: \u201cWe sleep tonight in Kerem Shalom and block aid and fuel to Hamas<\/a>! Do you want to sleep here with us? Shuttles are running throughout the night and day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and the war that ensued, Kerem Shalom was the main commercial crossing between Israel and Gaza. Today, it\u2019s one of just two entry points for lifesaving food and medicine to the besieged enclave, where aid agencies say civilians are on the brink of famine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scrawny and wearing an inside-out T-shirt, De Bresser appears an unlikely leader. But he has credentials. He has lived in Yitzhar, a settlement in the West Bank notorious for its violence against neighboring Palestinians, and has been arrested a dozen times, including during demonstrations backing Israel\u2019s contentious judicial overhaul<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tattooed on his neck is a fist raised against a blue Star of David, the emblem of the Jewish Defense League, founded in New York by the extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane and designated by the FBI a terrorist organization. The group launched bombings against Palestinian and Arab targets in the 1970s and \u201980s but is now largely inactive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s old-school,\u201d explains Bnayahu Ben Shabat, 23, a friend of De Bresser\u2019s, before they set out on their journey. Ben Shabat is in charge of special projects for Im Tirtzu, a right-wing Zionist organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Special projects such as the one they have in store this early Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Bresser and Ben Shabat have been protesting the aid for several weeks. Camping is a new idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Israel Defense Forces \u2014 ostensibly, at least \u2014 have made Kerem Shalom a closed military zone since late January. But there are no checkpoints at night, making it easier to bring in busloads of protesters. Still, Ben Shabat wants to take the winding roads through the farmland, to stay on the right side of the court order that bans him from some parts of the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the group finally reaches the crossing, a motor coach full of campers is already waiting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lone police car sits just inside the open gates, its blue and red lights flashing. But teenagers inside are unperturbed, streaming off the coach and through the open gates, screaming with excitement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inside, they shake hands with soldiers and begin to line up their tents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skip to end of carousel<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israel-Gaza war<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

\"\"(Said Khatib\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secretary of State Antony Blinken left Tel Aviv<\/a> on Thursday after holding talks with Israeli officials. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a new Hamas proposal for a three-stage cease-fire deal<\/a> in a news conference Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For context: <\/strong>Understand what\u2019s behind the Israel-Gaza war<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

End of carousel<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, visiting this month, called on Israel to ensure the passage of aid for Gaza through Kerem Shalom. But there\u2019s no apparent effort here to stop the teens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One asks a soldier if he can drive his car into the crossing point. The soldier says it\u2019s fine by him but he\u2019s not sure whether the police will stop him. \u201cI don\u2019t think they will,\u201d he says. \u201cGood luck. Turn on your lights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A voice over a loudspeaker instructs protesters to grab sleeping bags and tents. \u201cWelcome to whoever came,\u201d It says. \u201cChampions \u2014 really, champions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 3 a.m., Tahel Attar, 17, offers around soup. \u201cThe army is with us, the police is with us,\u201d she says. \u201cThey don\u2019t want us to be here, but they get it. They let us. We are talking with them, we are having fun with them, we are offering them everything they need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some pose with soldiers for a picture. \u201cAm Yisreal Chai!\u201d they yell. The people of Israel live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The boom of an explosion inside Gaza reaches the camp. Cheers and whoops go up. Rafah, the border town where Israel has said it is mounting a new assault, is less than five miles away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Bresser updates in his WhatsApp group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe gate is open! You can get by car right to the crossing (just move the car far afterwards).\u201d Trucks will be blocked. \u201cTriumph!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Share this articleShare<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teens, and a smattering of people in their 20s, have come from all over Israel. They say that humanitarian aid to Gaza helps Hamas, and they\u2019ll block it even if it means innocents starve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben Shabat argues sugar and flour can be used to make bombs. \u201cWhen you mix flour with potassium nitrate you get an explosive for a warhead,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery pound of sugar and flour that goes into Gaza from Israel, we will get it back by the way of a rocket that will kill our children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tactic is also about starvation. \u201cWhen a soldier is hungry, he\u2019s not fighting so well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the children? \u201cNobody can say children are bad,\u201d he says. But \u201cthe children from the past were murdering and raping and kidnapping\u201d on Oct. 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others say the aid isn\u2019t even necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe heard they are giving them stuff that they don\u2019t really, really need,\u201d Attar says. \u201cLike strawberries. I don\u2019t think people there are crying for strawberries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israeli protesters block aid shipments to Gaza<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1:00<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/imasdk.googleapis.com\/js\/core\/bridge3.619.0_en.html#goog_528786258<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Post’s Loveday Morris saw Israeli protesters at Israel-Gaza’s Kerem Shalom border crossing on Feb. 7 blocking trucks from bringing aid into the Gaza Strip. (Video: Joe Snell\/The Washington Post)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Gaza, families are eating animal feed<\/a> to survive. Ninety-three percent of the population of over 2 million faces \u201ccrisis levels of hunger,\u201d a U.N.-backed consortium reported in late December<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hadas Kremer, a 17-year-old with curly blond hair from the Orthodox settlement of Otniel near Hebron, explains that Palestinians who are unhappy and hungry in Gaza should leave. Israel pays for them to exit, she says. In reality, the vast majority of Gazans have no way to flee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With dawn comes a new busload of demonstrators, ultra-Orthodox children and teens from northern Israel. They strap on their tefillin and pray. Some dance. A group with a guitar sing songs about the military. They use the border crossing bathrooms. No one asks them to leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every explosion in Gaza raises a cheer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDead, dead, dead Arabs,\u201d one camper shouts at a roaring volley of outgoing fire. Then she notes the presence of a reporter. \u201cHamas,\u201d she corrects herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the morning, aid trucks stretch along the Israeli border with Egypt. Amid a sudden panic that deliveries might be allowed to enter through a gate normally used as an exit, the protesters shifted their tents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Israeli soldiers look on. \u201cMan, don\u2019t you feel don\u2019t you feel like shooting off a round over there?\u201d asks one demonstrator, looking out toward Egypt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want them to shoot you,\u201d the soldier replies. \u201cYou are more important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the new position of some of the tents appears more irksome to the Israeli military. At 10 a.m., a group of high-ranking officers arrives. Among them is Brig. Gen. Yossi Bachar, a former chief of the general staff, now a reservist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will leave here when there is a video of General Yossi Bachar saying not one truck will pass though this gate today,\u201d De Bresser says. The demonstrators are assured that no goods will be allowed to enter as long as they move back from the border fence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They do so. The trucks idle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IDF referred questions on why the protesters were allowed to remain at the crossing to COGAT, the Defense Ministry agency that oversees Palestinian civil affairs and crossing points. COGAT did not respond to requests for comment. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it could not provide data on how many trucks have been disrupted at the crossing. The office does not have a presence at the border point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By early afternoon on Wednesday, many teens have left for school and family. Still, the dozen or so children who remain, with a smattering of adults, manage to keep any aid for entering Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A group of kids who moved barbed wire and a log to form a barrier in front of their tents begins to turn back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The kids blare electronic music. Gaza rattles with machine-gun fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier demonstrators had \u201cfolded\u201d and gone home, said De Bresser. But he vows to stay on. Police tried to evacuate the camp on Thursday, organizers said, but protesters returned, blocking the crossing for another day on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Saturday, De Bresser put out a new appeal on WhatsApp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll the people of Israel should come and support!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judith Sudilovsky in Jerusalem contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

washingtonpost.com <\/a>\u00a9 1996-2024 The Washington Post<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Loveday Morris February 10, 2024 at 5:35 p.m. EST (WashingtonPost.com) Israeli protesters stand near the border wall with Egypt at the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza. Israelis in their teens and 20s began occupying the crossing on Wednesday to stop the delivery of humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave. (Lorenzo… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1813],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31719"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31719"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31723,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31719\/revisions\/31723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}