Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90
Armed and masked Palestinians on trucks loaded with humanitarian aid entering southern Gaza through the Kerem Shalom Crossing from Israel, April 3, 2024.
(JNS) — The Israeli Air Force attacked two groups of Hamas gunmen in southern Gaza overnight Wednesday. The terrorists were planning to hijack trucks carrying humanitarian aid, the military said.
The intelligence-based precision strikes were conducted at two meeting points where the Hamas members were operating along the humanitarian corridor. According to the Israel Defense Forces, the strikes were intended to ensure the safe delivery of aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip.
“All of the terrorists who were eliminated were members of Hamas and planned to violently hijack humanitarian aid trucks and transfer them to Hamas in support of continuing terrorist activity, preventing them from reaching Gazan civilians, as was done in previous cases,” the IDF said.
The IDF emphasized that it does not target aid trucks and that the humanitarian corridor remains open and active. The army also stressed that measures are taken to prevent harm to civilians and that, alongside the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit, it will continue to act in accordance with international law to facilitate the transfer of humanitarian aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip.
On Wednesday, the World Central Kitchen (WCK) NGO dismissed 62 of its local staff members in the Gaza Strip — more than 10% of its workforce — after Israel said they had links to terrorist groups.
The dismissals came a week after the Israeli Air Force killed terrorist Ahed Azmi Qadi, who participated in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. Qadi was employed by WCK, but he was driving an unmarked vehicle at the time of the strike and was not on a designated aid route.
Immediately following the airstrike, WCK denied knowing that any of the vehicle’s occupants were linked to the Oct. 7 attacks and announced a pause in its Gaza operations as a result of the incident.
“We are heartbroken to share that a vehicle carrying World Central Kitchen colleagues was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza. At this time, we are working with incomplete information and are urgently seeking more details,” the Washington-based NGO wrote on social media.
“Our hearts are with our colleagues and their families in this unimaginable moment,” the organization posted.
Some 6,000 terrorists from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah, as well as unaffiliated Palestinian civilians, infiltrated the Jewish state on Oct. 7, 2023, murdering some 1,200 people, wounding thousands and kidnapping 250. There are currently one hundred hostages being held in Gaza, including four who were abducted before Oct. 7.
