Horror on the road to Gaza – Why Jewish settlers attack Palestinian trucks

By Fayha Shalash – Ramallah

They stole the goods, attacked the driver and burned down the truck – all under the watchful eyes, or more precisely, under the protection, of the Israeli army.

Illegal Jewish settlers have repeatedly blocked trucks carrying humanitarian aid from the occupied West Bank to the besieged and war-torn Gaza Strip.

Videos circulated on social media showing burning trucks near Israeli military checkpoints, as well as settlers blocking aid trucks, attacking Palestinian drivers and throwing boxes of aid on the ground.

Observers in the West Bank believe that the illegal settlers are targeting not only trucks carrying humanitarian aid on their way to Gaza, but every Palestinian vehicle, regardless of its destination.

The Palestine Chronicle spoke to 35-year-old driver Ibrahim Al-Razem, who escaped death after being attacked by more than a hundred Israeli settlers while driving his truck in the northern occupied West Bank.

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They tried to kill me

Al-Razem, who has been working in trucking goods for seven years, was transporting a load of soft drinks from the city of Nablus to the town of Kafr Aqab near Jerusalem last Thursday.

Near the illegal settlement of Kochav Hashahar, east of Nablus, al-Razem was surprised to find a group of settlers blocking the way of Palestinian vehicles while throwing stones at them.

“I tried to change my route, but they immediately surrounded me and started interrogating me about the cargo,” al-Razem said.

“I showed them the papers that proved it was domestic cargo for business in the West Bank. They knew I was not carrying aid for Gaza, but they asked me if I was Palestinian and started attacking me.”

The attack took place in the presence and under the protection of the Israeli army, which, according to al-Razem, claimed it could not stop the settlers.

Al-Razem managed to escape at high speed, but the settlers pursued him in their vehicles for more than six kilometers.

“When I arrived in the Mikhmas area east of Ramallah, the settlers were able to intercept my truck and forced me to stop,” the driver explained.

“Their number increased from six to over 120. They had requested reinforcements from the Kochav Hashahar settlement before pursuing me,” he added.

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Brutal aggression

The hostilities were brutal, Al-Razem reported.

“They wanted to kill me. Armed and organized militias tried to kill me. That’s what I can say.”

He described how they attacked him with their hands and feet and with iron clubs on his head and back, while hurling obscene insults at him.

The settlers then burned al-Razem’s truck after looting the entire cargo.

As soon as the attack subsided, Israeli soldiers ordered the settlers to leave the area without even questioning them.

Al-Razem was taken to hospital where he was found to have two skull fractures, three back fractures, a shoulder fracture and two rib fractures, as well as deep cuts and bruises.

As the breadwinner of his four children, the truck driver will need several months to recover before he can return to work.

“After everything that happened to me, I thank God that I was able to return alive to my children and family,” Al-Razem said.

He has no intention of filing a lawsuit against the settlers. The Palestinians know very well that this could be a waste of time and money, since Israeli judges do not punish the crimes of Jewish settlers.

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It’s not about help

Settlement expert Jamal Jumaa told the Palestine Chronicle that settlers are using the blockade of aid to Gaza as a pretext to achieve something much more profound.

According to Jumaa, the Jewish settlers are well aware that the aid supplies for the Gaza Strip are not transported through the roads of the West Bank, but through Jordan.

In his view, these attacks aim to create a new paradigm by further isolating Palestinians amid aggression and intimidation.

“Jewish settlers violently displaced 26 Bedouin communities in the West Bank and regularly practiced terrorism in all its forms without oversight or accountability,” Jumaa stressed.

“These gangs are fully supported by the Israeli government. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has provided them with logistical funding, while National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has armed them with machine guns.”

Jumaa described the settlers as organized gangs who do everything to terrorize the Palestinians and drive them out.

He is convinced that the settler militias are being used to implement the Israeli government’s annexation plan, while at the same time maintaining an apartheid system that oppresses the Palestinian population within the borders of their villages and towns.

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A key part of this plan is to force Palestinians to use narrow and bumpy back roads, he said.

He assumes that no one will dare to use the main roads if they become too dangerous and Palestinians are not protected from settler attacks.

“This is part of a clear, planned and strategic system aimed at turning everything in the West Bank into settler property,” Jumaa stressed.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

– Fayha’ Shalash is a Palestinian journalist based in Ramallah. She graduated from Birzeit University in 2008 and has worked as a reporter and broadcaster since then. Her articles have appeared in several online publications. She contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.