The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continues to attack relief convoys in Gaza. AP reported yesterday that four Palestinians from a transportation company were killed by an Israeli strike on their vehicle as they were leading an American convoy carrying medical supplies and fuel to an Emirati hospital in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military insisted the four men were carrying weapons. American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), the group that was running the convoy, said in a statement, that the four men had stepped forward to take control of the leading vehicle, “citing concern that the route was unsafe and at risk of being looted.” The four men were neither vetted nor coordinated in advance but were not armed, according to every report that ANERA received, but were killed by the Israeli military without warning or communication.
On Aug. 28, the World Food Program (WFP) announced that it was pausing the movement of all staff in Gaza until further notice after one of its clearly marked vehicles was hit by at least 10 bullets as it was moving toward an Israeli military checkpoint at the Wadi Gaza bridge in the center of the territory, reported AP. The WFP announcement said the vehicle was struck the day before despite receiving multiple clearances by Israeli authorities to approach. “None of the employees onboard was physically harmed,” WFP said.
The attack on the WFP vehicle sparked a U.S. rebuke of Israel at the UN. At a UN Security Council meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood singled out the Israeli military’s repeated firing at a clearly marked WFP vehicle. Wood expressed alarm at the WFP incident and said Israel has told the U.S. their initial review said it was “a result of a communication error” between Israeli military units.