Jordan says Israel settlers attacked Jordanian aid convoys on way to Gaza

Jordan’s Foreign Ministry said some Israeli settlers attacked two of its humanitarian aid convoys as they made their way towards the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

Both convoys managed to continue on their journey and reach their destination in war-devastated Gaza, the Ministry added in a statement. Such a route to the Gaza Strip would have taken them through the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Israel.

“Two Jordanian aid convoys carrying food, flour and other humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip were attacked by settlers,” the Ministry said, without giving details of what happened.

Honenu, an Israeli legal aid agency, said four men who had “blocked aid trucks going to Gaza” as they were passing near the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim were arrested by Israeli police.

The Jordanian government condemned the incident and said it held Israeli authorities fully responsible for ensuring the protection of aid convoys and international organisations.

Jordan has been air-dropping aid and sending convoys westward overland to Palestinians in Gaza throughout the war between Israel and Gaza’s ruling Palestinian group, Hamas, that erupted on 7 October.

The US has been pushing Israel to take steps to improve the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza, where Israeli bombardments and invasion have left a wasteland with most of the 2.3 million population displaced and at risk of famine and disease.

One of Wednesday’s Jordanian convoys, consisting of 31 trucks, was bound for the Erez Crossing into north Gaza and the other, with 48 trucks, was headed for the Karm Abu Salem Crossing into southern Gaza, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said.

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