Many dozens of activists arrived today (Wednesday) at the Kerem Shalom crossing, and tried to disrupt and prevent the passage of aid trucks to the Gaza Strip. 40 activists were arrested by the Israeli police. According to the ‘Honno’ organization that represents the detainees, only 10 were taken to the police station in Netivot, and 137 trucks were able to get through after police officers prevented the protesters from approaching the scene.
Among the detainees, the bereaved brother and son Yehuda Di, whose mother Leah (Lucy) and his two sisters Rina and Maya were murdered in an attack at the Hamra junction last Passover.
Following the protests and the blocking of the crossings to the Gaza Strip, the IDF spokesman announced that in accordance with the assessment of the situation, Southern Command Commander Yaron Finkelman tonight signed the expansion of the closed military area order on Route 211 and the Nitsana crossing. Due to the blocking of the aid trucks to the Gaza Strip, Finkelman already on Sunday announced a transit zone Kerem Shalom as a “closed military area”. MK Limor Son Har-Malech petitioned the High Court against the decision.
This is after last Sunday the Kerem Shalom crossing area was declared a closed military area, in an attempt to prevent the activists from interfering with the passage of the trucks, since the introduction of humanitarian equipment into the Gaza Strip is the implementation of the Cabinet decision from last December. The security cabinet, which also includes ministers Smotritz and Ben Gvir who support the protest, decided in December on the entry of the aid trucks, even though there are 136 Israeli abductees in Gaza whose fate is unknown.
“There is no more just struggle than this,” she said this morning EvgeniaMother of Andrei Kozlov The abducted in the Gaza Strip, for the ‘Order 9’ activists protesting for the 8th day in a row against the entry of goods into Gaza. “I’m not ready for anyone to receive any aid, when I don’t know what’s going on with my son,” said the mother to the activists who gathered near Kibbutz Magen in the Gaza Strip, before they tried to block the trucks at the Kerem Shalom crossing today.
Yevgenia Kozlov and Andrey (photo: private album) Yesterday it was reported on Palestinian channels that in trucks that are supposed to transport food, medicine and weather protection equipment, 80 bodies of Palestinians collected by the IDF in the northern Gaza Strip and in Gaza City were also returned (apparently from the Shafaa and Indonesian hospitals) And yesterday they were brought for burial in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. The IDF spokesman refused to comment on the report.
In the first days of the protest, the activists did manage to block the passage of goods, but due to the imposition of the order, in the last days there were delays and arrests of activists. Among those arrested: the initiator of ‘Order 9’, Sefi Ben Haim and chairman of the Mothers’ March Sima Hason.
Yesterday, the activists changed the protest route, and blocked the trucks passing through the Nitsana crossing, while the goods in Kerem Shalom passed as planned. In addition, the activists announced last night that the goods arriving in Gaza pass through Ashdod port, which seems to be another focus of the organization’s activities.
Monetary aid trucks on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing (Photo: Abdel Rahim Katib/Flash90)
The 27-year-old Kozlov immigrated to Israel last August from St. Petersburg, Russia, where he studied visual design and advertising and managed to work a little in the industry. “He was interested in Israel and the possibility of immigrating for many years,” says his father. According to him, already during the corona, Andrey made a final decision to immigrate and was looking for the best ways to fulfill his dream, while intensively working on compiling the documents required for immigration.
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