Last week, on April 16, the government of Israel sent approximately 95 trucks of humanitarian aid and supplies into the Gaza Strip through the border stations at Kerem Shalom and the Sufa Crossing. According to the list provided by Israel’s foreign ministry, the supplies included cleaning products, rice, dairy products, fruit, sugar, humus, meat, spices, flour, salt, garlic, fish, starch, hypochlorite, fennel, pea, pasta, hatching eggs and disposable plates. The Egyptian government contributed 11 trucks of supplies as well, with oil, paper, single-use dishes, medical equipment, diapers, preservatives, nylon bags, gloves, drip irrigation system, pipes and pads. Israel also delivered hundreds of thousands of litres of diesel fuel to Gaza’s main power plant via the Nahal Oz fuel terminal.
In the past 10 months, it should be noted, Israel has sent 21,328 trucks – or 500,061 tons – of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in Gaza. Israel sends an average of 200 trucks of humanitarian supplies into Gaza every week.
On the very same day last week, as the government of Israel sent those 95 trucks of aid to the people in Gaza, the government of Gaza sent its terrorist forces against the people of Israel. Three Israeli soldiers were killed during a routine patrol of the border.
The next day, three terrorists tried to sneak into Israel through the Kerem Shalom crossing, the key arterial lifeline through which thousands of trucks and hundreds of thousands of tons of supplies are distributed to the people of Gaza. Of course, the Israel Defence Forces struck back at the three terrorists, killing two of them.
Even as the terrorists tried to enter Israel via Kerem Shalom, snipers fired at the people manning the fuel terminal at Nahal Oz, where the main supplies of diesel fuel and natural gas are transferred to the people of Gaza, forcing it to close temporarily once again.
To all but the most obtuse or the most malevolently inclined to the Jewish state, the pattern of Hamas behaviour should be obvious. Hamas sends its gunmen to the border with Israel to strike at Israelis trying to facilitate commerce with and by the Palestinians of Gaza, and to disrupt the flow of humanitarian aid there. It send its terrorists into Israel to wreak their murderous mayhem on civilians and soldiers alike. Hamas also holds back the distribution of supplies to the suffering Palestinians to deepen their deprivation.
Hamas is bringing to ruin the lives of its own people in Gaza. It has effectively deprived Gazans of the ongoing commerce that was once their daily fare; it prevents the free flow of essential supplies; it scapegoats the Israelis; it poisons the minds of the younger generation against Israelis and Jews; and it has destroyed, for now at least, even the possibility of coexistence with the Jewish state.
Once again, the Palestinians have been betrayed by their own leaders. Like Yasser Arafat, Hamas’ overarching, hatred of the Jews has evicted from its leaders’ hearts the fundamental notion of ensuring the well-being and dignity of their own people.
