(The Muslim News): On Thursday, an Israeli airstrike hit an aid convoy in Gaza organized by the Washington-based non-profit American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera), resulting in the deaths of four Palestinians in the lead vehicle. The convoy, which was delivering crucial food and fuel supplies to the Emirati Red Crescent Hospital in Gaza, had been fully cleared and coordinated, with unarmed security guards in place according to Anera’s agreement with the transit company, Move One. Despite this, Israel claimed—without offering immediate evidence—that it targeted the convoy after gunmen allegedly took control of it.
Anera’s statement revealed that initial reports indicate four community members with previous mission experience and security roles at Move One took it upon themselves to lead the convoy’s first vehicle, driven by concerns about the dangerous route and the risk of looting.
“The four community members were neither vetted nor coordinated in advance, and Israeli authorities allege that the lead car was carrying numerous weapons. The Israeli airstrike was carried out without any prior warning or communication,” Anera said in the statement.
The organisation confirmed that no Anera staff were injured, underscoring that the rest of the convoy courageously continued their mission, successfully delivering the aid to the hospital. Tragically, Anera’s logistics coordinator in Gaza, Mousa Shawwa, was killed on March 8 by an Israeli airstrike while seeking refuge in a designated safe shelter.
The assault on the Anera convoy came on the heels of another Israeli attack on a World Food Programme (WFP) vehicle in Gaza on Wednesday, which forced the UN agency to temporarily suspend staff movements in the area.
On April 1, an Israeli airstrike claimed the lives of seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers in Gaza, including three British nationals, an Australian, a Polish national, a U.S.-Canadian dual citizen, and a Palestinian.
In a rare public rebuke of Israel, U.S. President Joe Biden expressed his “outrage and heartbreak” following the attack on WCK aid workers, accusing Israel of failing to adequately protect humanitarian personnel. During a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on April 4, Biden issued a stern warning, signalling potential policy changes if Israel does not take immediate steps to safeguard civilians and aid workers in Gaza.
The UN reports that since October 7, over 280 aid workers have been killed in Gaza, the majority of whom were staff members of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
On Friday morning, as the Israeli army withdrew from Khan Younis after a 22-day offensive, they left behind a landscape of extensive damage, with bodies scattered in the streets and buried beneath the rubble. During this assault, the army also destroyed crucial water lines supplying areas it designated as “humanitarian,” according to the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza.
“The Israeli army destroyed main water lines providing essential services to residents in the areas it claims are humanitarian,” said Mohammad Al-Mughir, the agency’s director of supply and equipment, to Anadolu Agency.
The withdrawal exposed widespread devastation, with infrastructure, homes, and roads reduced to ruins. Civil Defence teams are now combing through the debris in search of missing persons.
Medical sources at Nasser Hospital reported that 10 Palestinian bodies were recovered from central and eastern Khan Younis after the army’s withdrawal. In a separate incident, an Israeli drone strike on Abasan al-Kabira, east of Khan Younis, killed three Palestinians and injured several others.
Meanwhile, in central Gaza, an Israeli drone strike on a civilian gathering in the al-Masdar area east of Deir al-Balah claimed the life of one Palestinian and left several others injured, with victims taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Another three fatalities were reported at the same hospital late Thursday night after an Israeli drone struck al-Baraka Junction in central Deir al-Balah.
In Gaza City, Israeli artillery has heavily shelled the al-Sabra and Zeitoun neighbourhoods since early Friday morning, demolishing several residential buildings and homes in southern Zeitoun.
In the northern Gaza Strip, three Palestinians, including a child, were killed, and others injured.
Meanwhile, Israel faced harsh condemnation from the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories on Friday for attempting to justify its military offensive in the West Bank, asserting that Tel Aviv cannot invoke self-defence for its occupation and actions in the region.
Since Wednesday, the Israeli army has been carrying out its most extensive military operation in the northern West Bank cities of Tulkarm, Jenin, and Tubas since 2002.
“Israel claims that what it is doing in the West Bank is justified under the law of self-defence,” Francesca Albanese said in a statement on X, rejecting the claim: “This claim has no validity.”
She emphasised that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled 20 years ago that Israel cannot invoke self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter to justify building the Wall in occupied Palestinian territory. Albanese noted that the ICJ recently reaffirmed this stance, stating, “Israel’s very presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is itself unlawful.”
She argued that Israel’s occupation cannot be defended under any claim of “self-defence,” adding, “As an ongoing unlawful use of force, Israel’s occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories cannot be justified by any claim of self-defence.”
The UN official denounced Israel’s manipulation of international law, stating, “Israel’s perversion of the law on self-defence must be recognised for what it is: a brazen attempt to provide an imprimatur of ‘legality’ to the maintenance of its unlawful aggression against the territorial integrity and political independence of the State of Palestine.”
Albanese asserted that Israel must withdraw from the occupied territories to achieve true security, adding, “If Israel truly wants to achieve its claimed security, the best and most obvious way to do that would be to cease its colonisation of another people’s land, withdraw from all of it, and make appropriate reparation for damage caused (as requested by the ICJ), while being sure to apologise to its victims on the way out.”
Tensions have been running high across the occupied West Bank amid a brutal Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 40,600 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since October 7 last year.
At least 673 Palestinians have been killed, nearly 5,400 others injured, and over 10,300 arrested in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian figures.
In a landmark opinion on July 19, the ICJ declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The ongoing Israeli bombings on Gaza since October 7, 2023, has thus far resulted in at least 40,602 documented Palestinian fatalities and 93,855 injuries, with many more victims trapped under debris.
[Photo: Palestinians walk among the rubbles of destroyed buildings and streets by Israeli army after 48 hours of heavy attacks in on Nur Shams Refugee Camp in Tulkarm, West Bank on 30 08, 2024. Photojournalist: Issam Rimawi /AA]
