In show of solidarity, left-wing activists attempt to deliver aid to civilians in Gaza

Bearing food aid and wearing “Don’t Starve Gaza!” t-shirts, dozens of left-wing activists drove towards the border of the war-torn territory on Thursday in a show of support for Palestinian civilians amid Israel’s war with the Hamas terror organization.

The 30-vehicle convoy got within three kilometers of the Kerem Shalom Crossing before police turned it back.

Organizers had expected that outcome, and they acknowledged the convoy was a symbolic act in a society in which their focus on the plight of Palestinians places them in the minority.

The goal was to highlight “a different voice” and show “there are people in our society who feel what is happening in Gaza is unacceptable,” said Nadav Shofet, a member of the Stand Together collective that planned the demonstration.

Aid groups and the United Nations are warning of looming famine in Gaza, five months after the massacre carried out by Hamas terrorists inside Israel on October 7 and the subsequent war in Gaza.

Some 1,200 people were killed on October 7, most of them civilians, amid scenes of horrific brutality, and 253 others were dragged to Gaza as hostages.

In response, Israel launched an aerial campaign and ground operation inside the Palestinian enclave, vowing to eliminate Hamas, topple the terror organization’s 16-year rule of the Gaza Strip, and rescue the hostages.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said that some 30,800 people have been killed in the fighting, though these figures cannot be independently verified, and do not differentiate between combatants and civilians, including those killed as a consequence of the terror group’s rocket misfires. The IDF says it has killed over 13,000 operatives in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.

While most demonstrators wore the purple “Don’t starve Gaza!” t-shirts on Thursday, they also tied yellow ribbons to their side mirrors, a symbol of the campaign to bring back the hostages seized by Hamas during the October 7 terror onslaught.

Israel has said it believes 130 hostages taken that day remain in Gaza, but that 31 of them are dead. There were 105 civilians released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that. Three hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 11 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.

“Our fight against Hamas is justified,” said 39-year-old speech therapist Orly Shay Keslassy, who took part in Thursday’s demonstration.

“But we cannot ignore that there are millions of people that are innocent in Gaza. I can’t live as an Israeli knowing that my government and some people in Israel don’t want people in Gaza to have enough food.”

Despite their gesture of solidarity with the hostages, the demonstrators drew the ire of Ilan Enia, an Israeli truck driver who watched them drive off toward Kerem Shalom.

“It’s a shame, a shame, to send trucks to Gaza while our soldiers are being killed,” he said, using profanity to express what he thought the demonstrators could do to themselves.

Early on Thursday morning, the demonstrators gathered at a train station in Tel Aviv to prepare the convoy, packing diapers, baby formula, sugar, flour, pre-prepared meals and dates for the upcoming Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Among the vehicles was a seven-ton truck filled with supplies.

The convoy took the road that passes near Kibbutz Kfar Aza and Kibbutz Be’eri, where almost 200 civilians were slaughtered during the October 7 onslaught.

The convoy also passed through Kibbutz Re’im, where Hamas terrorists mowed down 364 people at the Supernova music festival.

“People were killed here! Shame on you if you want to feed terrorists!” a man yelled out at them near Re’im, as air strikes in Gaza could be heard in the distance.

Roy Hoschem, a member of the convoy, said “I don’t think people are mean, I think people have suffered a lot. They don’t have any room for empathy for other people.”

Visibly shaken, Keslassy, the speech therapist, tried to explain the “big confusion” she thinks dominates Israeli society.

“We are in a pain-against-pain scenario. Hamas killed innocent people, but that’s not a reason to do the same,” the mother of two said.

“I want my country to be democratic and moral.”

After police ordered the convoy to turn around, the demonstrators quickly complied.

But one of the organizers, Roula Dawod, vowed with tears in her eyes that they would “try again.”

Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.