A rabbi and seven peace activists were arrested near the Gaza border on Friday as they tried to bring food supplies into the Gaza Strip, according to two participants and the campaign group that organized the effort.
The detainees included about 30 Israeli and American rabbis and activists who were stopped by police as they tried to reach the Erez crossing, a major transit point between Israel and northern Gaza.
The initiative, organized by the US-based peace movement Ceasefire Rabbis, aimed to rally support for the ceasefire and highlight rising reports of hunger in Gaza. The Integrated Food Security Staging Initiative, a global authority on food security, predicted famine was imminent in northern Gaza, the area closest to Erez.
The protests coincided with the week of Passover, a Jewish festival celebrating the Biblical story of the liberation of Jews from slavery in ancient Egypt.
“We know that the liberation of the Jews is tied to the liberation of the Palestinians, and that we want freedom for all,” said Boston Rabbi Tovah Spitzer, who took part in the protests but was not arrested. I was making a point,” he said.
Rabbi Spitzer said the group tried to enter Gaza in a pickup truck carrying half a ton of rice and flour, but was stopped about a third of a mile from the border. The effort was largely symbolic, and organizers expected it to fail given restrictions along the border. The supplies will now be donated to poor Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Rabbi Spitzer said.
Israeli police did not respond to requests for comment.
Author Ayelet Waldman of Berkeley, California, was among those arrested, her husband, author Michael Chabon, said on Instagram.
Food shortages are widespread in Gaza. Israeli restrictions on where convoys can enter the Strip, Israeli shelling and widespread damage to roads, agricultural collapse in Gaza, and a breakdown in law and order all make it difficult to safely distribute aid. .
Aid groups and U.N. officials have accused Israel of systematically restricting aid delivery. Israel denies the claims, blaming the shortage on logistical failures by aid groups and recently increasing the number of trucks entering the Strip.
Israeli officials say the Erez intersection, used primarily for pedestrian traffic before the war, lacks proper infrastructure and was badly damaged in October's Hamas-led assault on Israel, making it difficult for relief supplies to arrive. It is said that it is difficult to use it for transportation.
A poll conducted in February by the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem-based research group, found that a majority of Jewish Israelis oppose providing more aid to Gaza.
Israeli protesters regularly gather at another intersection further south to try to block aid convoys from entering Gaza.