Israel’s minister for military affairs, Israel Katz, has ordered the army to prevent a North African aid convoy from entering the besieged Gaza Strip.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Katz’s office instructed Israeli troops to block the entry of “protesters” from entering Gaza from Egypt.
“I expect the Egyptian authorities to prevent them from reaching the Egypt-Gaza border and not allow them to carry out provocations and try to enter Gaza,” he added.
The convoy left the Tunisian capital in a 100-vehicle group earlier this week to raise international awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and deliver life-saving aid.
The land convoy, consisting of thousands of volunteers from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, departed on Monday towards Gaza to demand an end to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, break the siege, and deliver humanitarian aid.
The convoy includes union and political figures, as well as human rights activists, athletes, lawyers, doctors, journalists, and members of youth organizations, among others.
The activists are expected to enter Egypt on Thursday before reaching the border city of Rafah in southern Gaza.
Earlier on Monday, Israeli forces seized control of a charity vessel aiming to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip and detained its crew of 12, including activist Greta Thunberg.
In recent years, several ships have attempted to break Israel’s land, sea, and naval blockade on the Gaza Strip, but have repeatedly been pushed back by Israeli forces.
In 2010, the Mavi Marmara flotilla mission was attacked by Israeli forces who boarded the ship and killed ten activists.
In May, another vessel organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the Conscience, failed to continue its journey to Gaza after being struck by two drones near Maltese waters.
The United Nations has described Gaza as the “hungriest place on Earth”, with nearly half a million people in a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness, and death.
Since October 2023, over 54,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, according to Palestinian health and government officials, including more than 28,000 women and girls.
Human rights groups have accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians.
