Palestinian lorry drivers recount settlers’ attack on Gaza aid convoy

Lorenzo Tondo

Palestinian lorry drivers delivering aid to Gaza have described “barbaric” scenes after their vehicles were blocked and vandalised by Israeli settlers, preventing humanitarian supplies reaching the territory where much of the population face imminent starvation.

Drivers and contractors who were targeted on Monday at the Tarqumiya checkpoint in the occupied West Bank also said Israeli soldiers escorting the convoy did nothing to stop the attack.

The incident sparked international condemnation after videos emerged on social media that appeared to show Israeli settlers throwing boxes of much-needed supplies on the ground and at least one vehicle being set ablaze.

Yazid al-Zoubi, 26, said between 50 and 60 lorries had set out in the convoy.

“We were carrying oil, sugar and other things and driving from the Tarqumiya crossing,” he said. “We left in a convoy with an army vehicle in front of us and an army vehicle behind us, and we took a special army road that civilians could not cross. Suddenly, after 20 minutes on the road, near the crossing, we were surprised by at least 400 settlers. They attacked us. The rest of the drivers and I escaped from the vehicles after the settlers starting throwing stones at us.’’

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Peter Beaumont

We briefly reported earlier on the split in Israel’s war cabinet. Here is Peter Beaumont’s report on the situation:

A long-festering split at the heart of Israel’s war cabinet has burst into the open with the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, challenging the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to come up with plans for the “day after” the war in Gaza, and saying he would not permit any solution where Israeli military or civil governance were in the territory.

Gallant’s comments, immediately backed by his fellow minister Benny Gantz, plunged Israel’s leadership into a highly public row, in the midst of the Gaza conflict, raising immediate speculation over his future in the Israeli government and of Netanyahu’s fractious coalition.

In uncompromising remarks, Gallant – whose firing last year by Netanyahu triggered mass protests, a political crisis and an eventual reversal by the PM – publicly demanded that Netanyahu describe plans for a “day-after plan” for Gaza.

Gallant’s comments provoked an immediate political row, with Netanyahu pushing back rapidly with a videotaped statement and a call from the far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, for Gallant to be replaced.

Gallant was backed, however, by his fellow senior minister Benny Gantz, a former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, who said Gallant had spoken the “truth”.

Five soldiers have been killed by friendly fire in Gaza’s north, where intense fighting has resumed more than seven months into the war.

The troops were killed on Wednesday at 7pm local in the area of Jabalia refugee camp, the IDF said in a statement. Seven other troops were wounded in the incident.

The statement read:

Five soldiers of the 202nd Paratrooper Battalion were killed last night in a mass casualty incident as a result of fire by our forces.

It continued:

The shooting consisted of two tank shells. From the initial investigation... it appears that the tank fighters, from the ultra-Orthodox paratrooper company Hetz, identified a gun barrel coming out of one of the windows in the building, and directed each other to shoot at the building.

The US military has finished installing a floating pier for the Gaza Strip.

It means officials are now poised to begin ferrying badly needed humanitarian aid into the enclave besieged over seven months of intense fighting in the Israel-Hamas war.

The construction was finished overnight, AP reported, and sets up a complicated delivery process more than two months after Joe Biden ordered it to help Palestinians facing starvation.

Recently, food and other supplies have failed to make it in to Gaza as Israel recently seized the key Rafah border crossing in its push on that southern city on the Egyptian border.

US troops facilitating aid delivery through the pier will not set foot in Gaza, American officials insist, though they acknowledge the danger of operating near the war zone.

We are restarting the Guardian’s live coverage of the Israel-Gaza war.

Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh has rejected any postwar settlement in Gaza that excludes the group, saying “the movement [Hamas] will decide, along with all national factions, the administration of the Gaza Strip after the war.”

He also blamed Israel for a deadlock in Gaza ceasefire negotiations and said that any agreement must provide a framework for a permanent end to Israel’s offensive in the enclave.

His comments come as a split in Israel’s war cabinet was made public, with the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, challenging prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to come up with plans for the “day after” the war in Gaza, saying he would not permit any solution where Israeli military or civil governance were in the territory.

Here’s a summary of the day’s other main events.

• Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel must do “what is required” in Rafah despite disagreements with its longtime ally the US. The Israeli prime minister, in an interview with CNBC, acknowledged a “disagreement” with Washington over his country’s military offensive in the southernmost Gaza city, but he stood firm that the operation would be necessary.

• The Israeli leader said that it is pointless to “talk about the day after while Hamas is still intact.” “There is only one substitute for victory – defeat. My government will not agree to this,” Netanyahu said on Wednesday, according to Reuters. Netanyahu also repeated his claim that there is not a humanitarian crisis in southern Gaza.

• The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said Israel must have a clear and concrete plan for the future of Gaza. Blinken, in a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday, said that the US “do not support and will not support an Israeli occupation”, adding that “we can’t have a vacuum in Gaza that’s likely to be filled by chaos.”

• Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, told his US counterpart, Antony Blinken, that Israel’s attack on the Gazan city of Rafah is unacceptable, according to a Turkish diplomatic source. In a call on Wednesday, Fidan also told Blinken that it was important to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible.

• The UN has run out of tents and food to distribute to almost 2 million people in Gaza. UN officials told the Guardian that their warehouses were now completely empty south of the river dividing the northern third of the Gaza from the south, with no likelihood of resupply as long as the main entry points into the territory remain closed after Israeli offensives launched in recent days.

• The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has said it faces “significant disruptions” to its humanitarian operations due to Israel’s recent ground operations in Rafah. In a statement, the organisation said “the closure of the Rafah crossing and a blockade on entry of humanitarian workers and aid, including fuel, [is] critically hindering our ability to deliver essential services and aid to those in desperate need”.