IDF kill armed gunmen attempting to hijack humanitarian aid convoy in Gaza over weekend

The IDF announced on Saturday that troops from the Tzabar Battalion, part of the Givati Brigade, identified armed militants attempting to rob a humanitarian aid truck in southern Gaza. 

In video released by the IDF, armed gunmen can be seen surrounding one of the cargo trucks and climbing on top of the vehicle. 

Using armed drones, the soldiers fired on a vehicle carrying several of the armed gunmen, killing them, while another two who fled on foot were also targeted shortly after. 

The Tzabar Battalion soldiers were conducting operations to help secure humanitarian aid convoys, which have been repeatedly targeted by the Hamas terror organization throughout the war. 

Many pictures from Gaza social media accounts have shown UN humanitarian aid, which is checked and brought into Gaza with the cooperation of the IDF, being sold in markets in the Gaza Strip. Many times, the label on the packages clearly says, “Not for sale.” 

Humanitarian aid being sold in Rafah, Gaza.

Israel sends aid, Hamas steals it and then sells it to people.

Free Gaza from Hamas. pic.twitter.com/RjcZB0MUq1

— Hananya Naftali (@HananyaNaftali) March 19, 2024

Analysts have said that Hamas has used the sales of confiscated aid to raise funds during the war. 

While the UN has admitted the seizure of some humanitarian aid in the past, it refuses to blame Hamas for confiscating the aid and has instead often blamed Israel for the unsafe conditions in the Gaza Strip. 

In June, the UN, along with several other international aid organizations said the rampant lawlessness in southern Gaza, in which groups of armed men regularly blocked aid convoys and stopped drivers at gunpoint, had made aid distribution in the area unsafe. 

Several international aid organizations, including the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), suspended work in Gaza due to the unsafe conditions. The UN blamed the IDF for firing on their convoy as part of the reason, while the IDF later announced that it had fired on some vehicles in the convoy after armed gunmen took control of them.  

Earlier this month, the IDF declined to take an active role in humanitarian aid distribution within the Strip. However, the IDF did announce the creation of a new position within COGAT (Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories) to serve as liaison for humanitarian activities there. 

Israel has complained of Hamas terrorists present in humanitarian aid convoys frequently throughout the war. At the beginning of September, after the UN accused the IDF of stopping an aid convoy for eight hours, the IDF announced that it had found two Hamas militants within the aid convoy.