In the early hours of the morning on Thursday, February 29, Israeli forces accompanied the arrival of 30 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid to the northern Gaza Strip, which had entered the Strip through the Kerem Shalom crossing. The idea was to deliver the content of the trucks directly to the civilian population, without Hamas gaining control over the consignment for its own purposes.
The well-intentioned operation ended tragically in complete havoc, as thousands of civilians stormed the trucks, with (allegedly) over 100 of them being killed and over 700 wounded in the process.
Today, there are two basic versions of what actually took place. According to the Palestinians, Israeli forces opened fire on the crowd. According to the IDF, most of those killed were trampled by the vast crowd that stormed the trucks.
Israel admitted that a group of Palestinians were shot at by the Israeli forces that accompanied the trucks when the group started moving in their direction in a threatening manner. Israel also suggested that most of the shots might have been fired by Palestinians (Hamas?) trying to prevent the crowd from grabbing provisions from the trucks.
As yet, we have no knowledge of what exactly happened, though it seems unlikely that Israel was directly responsible for most of the deaths last Thursday. Deliberately killing Gazan civilians is certainly not one of Israel’s war aims, unlike Hamas, which sent its terrorists across to the Gaza border communities on October 7 to torture, rape, and kill as many Israeli civilians as possible.
One of the problems is that neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah is willing to admit what the Hamas terrorists actually did on October 7. They even had the gall to accuse the IDF of the carnage that took place around the Supernova music festival, in which 364 persons – participants in the festival, staff members, and policemen – were brutally slaughtered while women were raped.
Nevertheless, pessimists fear that Thursday’s tragic incident will serve as an excuse for a further delay in reaching an agreement between Israel and Hamas on the return of the 134 remaining hostages, and that no matter what the facts of the event, Israel will be accused of full responsibility for its tragic results.
Results reflect a fallacy in approach to the situation
THOUGH ISRAEL’S intentions were undoubtedly positive, the results reflect at least one basic fallacy in its approach to the situation, and will further aggravate its efforts to influence world public opinion.
The basic fallacy in Israel’s modus operandi is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to start preparing for the day after the fighting ends.
There is no doubt that from an Israeli perspective the goal of destroying the Hamas as a fighting force and a governing body is totally justified.
However, while it makes sense that at least in the first stage the IDF and other Israeli security agencies will be responsible for all the military aspects of the situation in the Strip, some alternative force or mechanism must be prepared and equipped to take over the everyday governing and policing functions and the provision of services.
For the time being, Netanyahu refuses to hold talks in Israel on the issue, despite intensive prodding by US President Joe Biden.
In the case of the catastrophe that occurred before dawn on Thursday, what seemed to be missing was a realistic and practical plan for the orderly delivery and distribution of the trucks’ contents to those for whom the provisions were intended. Who was supposed to do all of that? Certainly neither Hamas nor UNRWA, nor the PA, nor the IDF, nor the Palestinian truck drivers for that matter.
It has been suggested that in the event that no Arab or international body will agree to undertake the job once the fighting will end, Israel (i.e. Netanyahu) is counting on the cooperation of local Gazan clans to undertake the task. But who exactly are these clans? What are their qualifications to administer and provide services to over two million impoverished and largely homeless families and individuals, many of whom are traumatized, helpless, and hopeless? And who guarantees that there are no crime families among these clans?
But back to the events of February 29. Do we know what finally happened to the humanitarian aid that was on the 30 trucks? Did it finally reach its designated destination? Did Hamas gain control over it? Were Gazan clans involved? At any rate, Israel’s good intentions were dissipated.
The second worrying corollary of whatever actually took place on February 29 is that Israel’s hasbara (public diplomacy) efforts abroad are confronting ever growing difficulties in getting Israeli messages across.
Part of the problem has to do with the fact that pro-Palestinian forces in the US and Europe, accompanied by traditional antisemites, are carrying out an aggressive battle against anyone representing the Israeli cause – irrespective of what they say. Hard facts play a marginal part in this battle, and ignorance is rampant.
The photographs that came out of the Strip on Thursday indicated that the Gazan crowd was desperate enough, for lack of food and other basic commodities, to act as it did, and that irrespective of whether Israel was or was not directly responsible for the deaths and wounding of hundreds of Palestinian civilians on that day, basically it is Israel that is responsible for the current reality of massive destruction, displacement, and malnutrition/starvation in Gaza.
Though it cannot be denied that the first step that gave rise to the horrific developments that followed was taken by Hamas, and that Israel’s acts were, and continue to be, a reaction to what Hamas committed on October 7, the way that much of the civilized world – and not only pro-Palestinians and antisemites – sees it, Israel exaggerated in its reaction, and is therefore responsible for the current fate of over two million hapless Palestinians, irrespective of whether or not they support/ed Hamas.
Besides Biden’s differences with Netanyahu over the latter’s refusal to deal seriously with the question of the “day after,” he also differs with him over the issue of humanitarian aid for the inhabitants of the Strip.
Let us not forget that Israel’s official policy at the beginning of the war was not to let any aid enter the Gaza Strip, and that Israel was forced into cooperating with the international humanitarian aid effort, while Biden continues to demand a significant increase in this aid.
Thursday’s events have apparently convinced the US administration that Israel’s performance in this field is lacking, and it reacted already on Saturday by starting to perform airdrops of cooked meals along the beach in the southern Gaza Strip, in cooperation with the Royal Jordanian Air Force.
This action, apparently performed with Israel’s prior knowledge but not necessarily with its approval, certainly does not make Israel’s hasbara efforts any easier. In a way, it is a unilateral act of no confidence in Israel by its greatest ally.
How Netanyahu will react is yet to be seen. Biden’s move might actually increase Netanyahu’s hopes for a Trump victory in the US presidential elections in eight months’ time.
The writer worked in the Knesset for many years as a researcher, and has published extensively both journalistic and academic articles on current affairs and Israeli politics. Her most recent book, Israel’s Knesset Members – A Comparative Study of an Undefined Job, was published by Routledge.