How can we explain this tragedy? For me, it was like watching a live-action version of Lord of the Flies, a hell on earth where order and safety are gone and life becomes a primal fight for survival. Israel’s war objective is to destroy Hamas, but sadly it is also destroying any vestiges of orderly life in the Gaza Strip.
These were President Biden’s words on Friday when he announced that the United States would begin airdrop support to the Palestinians. “Innocent people were caught up in a terrible war where they couldn’t even provide for their families. You saw the reaction when they tried to get help.” It would be the most dramatic US intervention ever. Officials say the government is trying to “flood the area” with air, land and sea support.
The Biden administration sees the incident as a distillation of what is wrong in Gaza. “Israel has no plan to maintain order,” a senior government official told me. Israeli officials are ‘ignoring’ US warnings about chaotic plans ‘next day’. But these recent events suggest that Israel’s stated plan for loose control of Gaza by clans and local leaders is hollow at its core.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week insisted that future governance of the Gaza Strip should be “civilly administered by local groups” independent of Hamas. But as former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak wrote Friday in Foreign Affairs, “In reality, this means empowering a number of influential Gaza families, some of whom are Some are involved in crimes.”
As is the case at every point in this conflict, bickering quickly erupted over who was to blame for the food truck massacre. Palestinians have claimed that Israeli forces massacred civilians, but those claims are demonstrably false, as are Israeli claims that Israeli forces played no role. About 10 people were killed when Israeli forces opened fire at a checkpoint behind the convoy, according to U.S. officials who spoke with Israeli Defense Forces commanders on Friday.
The situation could change as details continue to emerge, but most of the deaths were caused by months of hunger and suffering as Israel began its response to the October 7 Hamast terrorist attack. It seems like it was a raw panic. Palestinian civilians were bombed from their homes, forced into refugee camps, deprived of food and sanitation, and now this is happening. Hamas goes underground, scratching trucks in a struggle for survival as Israel protects its military but not its civilians. .
Behind Thursday’s tragedy is a case study in Israel’s deeply flawed management of this war. After initial months of intense fighting, U.S. officials say humanitarian aid finally started flowing smoothly early this year, with more than 200 trucks distributing supplies a day. But in late January, Israel’s Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir announced that protesters had closed the main border crossing at Kerem Shalom to protest Hamas’s refusal to release all the hostages. He told the police to allow him to do so.
U.S. officials said panic began to spread as intersections were blocked. Food supplies soon ran short in Gaza, leading to hoarding and looting. UN relief workers were attacked by armed men as they tried to drive a truck into the Gaza Strip. The truck was accompanied by Gaza police. But the police are affiliated with Hamas, and they withdrew after Israel began targeting Hamas with drones, U.S. officials said.
To counter panic over food shortages, U.S. officials led by U.S. Humanitarian Assistance Coordinator David Satterfield decided to inject enough aid into Gaza to drive down prices and weaken the thieves. . That was the strategy behind this week’s convoy.
The first convoy of 21 trucks, run by Gazan companies that have long traded with Israel, entered northern Gaza early Wednesday morning. They succeeded in delivering supplies from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, but some of the supplies had been snatched from trucks and had been “self-distributed.”
An even larger convoy of 30 trucks was planned for Thursday. But U.S. officials said the Gaza contractor posted a notice on Facebook of the scheduled delivery. That’s why hundreds of Palestinians gathered before dawn Thursday to get their share of what was to come. A line of 30 trucks stretched for one kilometer. As the Palestinians drove alongside the truck in the dark, the terror began.
Watching drone footage of food scrambles, it’s hard not to conclude that Israel and Hamas have inadvertently combined to establish a temporary mob-rule position in Gaza. Israel now finds a Mogadishu version of Somalia on its borders.
When this war began on October 7, Israelis understandably felt that they were victims. The United States and its allies must now support the Israelis and, if necessary, force them to become rescuers.