RAMALLAH, West Bank, 29 May 2008 — Dozens of farmers from southern Israeli communities yesterday arrived at the Sufa border crossing and prevented the transfer of provisions into the Gaza Strip to protest the ongoing rocket attacks from Palestinian armed groups.
Israeli Radio quoted the farmers saying they were demonstrating against Israel’s policy of continuing to ship aid into Gaza while rocket attacks continue to emanate from the coastal enclave.
The report added that the protest seemed to resound even louder when, with the demonstration in full gear, Israeli troops operating near Sufa came under attack from Palestinian mortar shell barrages. An Israeli soldier was lightly wounded in the clashes.
The farmers blocked the road leading up to the crossing, which is on the western border between Israel and Gaza, with their cars and prevented trucks from unloading their cargo for almost an hour. Due to the protest and the nearby clashes — several of the truck drivers backed away from the crossing. The group of farmers left a short while afterward.
The Israeli farmers’ move came a day after the Amnesty International has released its 60th annual report which called the situation in Gaza “the gravest humanitarian crisis to date,” though it condemned the rocket fire from the Strip.
The report states that over 370 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, of which half were civilians and 50 were children. Thousands were injured during the attacks, which were launched in retaliation to Qassam rocket fire and the shooting at Israeli settlements and Israeli checkpoints near Gaza by Palestinian gunmen.
Aside from the killing of civilians and the destruction of over 100 Palestinian homes, the report states that “in June (2007), the Israeli government imposed an unprecedented blockade on the Gaza Strip, virtually imprisoning its entire 1.5 million people population, subjecting them to collective punishment and causing the gravest humanitarian crisis to date.”
The report further stated that “more than 550 Israeli military checkpoints and blockades restricted or prevented the movement of Palestinians between towns and villages in the West Bank,” and that “40 Palestinians died after being refused passage out of Gaza for urgent medical treatment not available in local hospitals.”
