Hostage families to protest at Kerem Shalom border crossing over lack of humanitarian aid to captives

Shai Wenkert, the father of Omer Wenkert who was taken hostage on October 7, tells Channel 12 that families of hostages will stage a protest at the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Tuesday, January 9, to raise awareness about the lack of humanitarian aid being given to the captives.

Wenkert has been campaigning for humanitarian aid, and medical aid in particular, to reach the hostages, as his son Omer suffers from colitis, which could have life-threatening repercussions without access to the correct food and medicine.

Speaking to Channel 12, he says that the aim of the protest at the Kerem Shalom border crossing will be to raise awareness about how much humanitarian aid enters Gaza on a daily basis while the hostages suffer.

“It’s not because we don’t think they don’t deserve aid,” Wenkert says of civilians in Gaza, explaining that the goal isn’t to prevent Palestinians from receiving aid altogether, but rather to pressure Israel to negotiate a deal in which the supplies are withheld until Hamas agrees to grant humanitarian aid to the captives as well.

Some 100 trucks of aid enter Gaza per day, in comparison to the 500 trucks a day that would enter prior to October 7.