Some 15 trucks loaded with flour entered Gaza City and the Jabaliya refugee camp overnight Sunday, guarded by a group mainly consisting of masked gunmen armed with AK-47 rifles.
Humanitarian aid convoy reaches Gaza City and Jabaliya
Saudi channel Asharq News quoted a member of the guard as saying, "The guard unit was established with the approval of the factions and national consensus. It will protect the aid trucks from today onwards, ensuring they are not attacked or hijacked."
These gunmen are believed to be affiliated with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah movement.
Some members of the guard rode on the trucks, while others walked alongside, preventing residents from approaching Al Nablusi Square in Gaza City. The flour from the trucks was delivered to the Palestinian Authority-affiliated Welfare Ministry's warehouses in the Al Rimal neighborhood, west of Gaza City. This marks the first arrival of aid trucks to the Jabaliya refugee camp in several months.
Before the trucks arrived for distribution, Palestinian Authority security forces issued a leaflet reading, "For your safety and the safe arrival of the trucks, do not go to Al Nablusi Square to receive aid, do not gather on Salah al-Din Road when the aid arrives, those who violate the instructions will be dealt with, and others will receive the aid."
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The directive follows multiple fatal incidents where Gaza civilians, in a rush to obtain supplies from aid trucks, caused deadly stampedes that resulted in numerous fatalities.
Over the weekend, NBC News reported that Israel is considering using international private security firms to protect humanitarian aid shipments entering the Gaza Strip. According to the report, Israel had approached several security companies about this and suggested that other countries could cover the security costs.
This comes as tensions between Hamas and Fatah reach a new peak following Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's decision to appoint Mohammad Mustafa as the head of the new Palestinian technocrat government.
"Forming a government without national consensus is a meaningless step that deepens the division among Palestinians,” Hamas said in a statement also endorsed by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. “It demonstrates the depth of the crisis in the Authority's leadership, the disconnect from reality, and the wide gap between it and our people."
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Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas
(Photo: AP / AFP)
Abbas’ Fatah movement launched an unprecedented attack on the terrorist groups in response, expressing astonishment at "the exclusion and division in Hamas' discourse.”
“We wonder, who did Hamas consult within the Palestinian leadership when it decided to embark on the October 7 adventure, leading to a catastrophe far more horrific and brutal than the disaster of 1948?” a statement read.
“With whom in the Palestinian leadership did Hamas consult when it is now negotiating with Israel and offering concession after concession, with no other aim than securing guarantees for its leaders' personal security?"