US aid group admits Gaza convoy was taken over by unvetted people before IDF struck them
Israel says individuals were gunmen, which it specifically targeted without harming others; Anera does not explain their presence but says it did not view them as ‘hostile threat’
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
A US-based aid group admitted Friday that a group of individuals — who the Israeli military says were armed — took control of an aid convoy in the southern Gaza Strip the day before, without the organization having vetted them or coordinated the matter with the Israel Defense Forces.
The military said Thursday that it struck the gunmen, killing them while not harming aid workers.
According to the IDF, Hamas operatives frequently try to hijack aid deliveries.
The IDF had said on Thursday that a convoy of aid trucks from the American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) organization entered the southern Rafah area with Israeli coordination. It said that during the drive, it identified a group of gunmen taking over a vehicle at the front of the convoy and beginning to lead it. The IDF described the act as a hijacking attempt.
Shortly afterward, the IDF said it was able to determine that it could strike just the car with the gunmen, without harming the rest of the convoy, and so it carried out a strike, killing at least four.
In a vaguely worded statement on Friday, Anera said that after the convoy departed the Kerem Shalom crossing, “four community members with experience in previous missions and engagement in community security” with their transport company, Move One, “stepped forward and took command of the leading vehicle, citing concern that the route was unsafe and at risk of being looted.”
Anera did not explain who the four were, or why persons who had not been coordinated with the military were allowed to take control of the convoy. It acknowledged that “the four community members were neither vetted nor coordinated in advance.”
Still, the organization said “the four individuals were not perceived by the convoy as a hostile threat” and that the Israeli strike “was carried out without any prior warning or communication.”
No Anera employees were hurt in the incident, and the convoy arrived at its destination, both the IDF and the organization said. According to the Anera, only one employee was present in the convoy, and they were unharmed.
The IDF said Thursday that “the presence of armed men in a humanitarian convoy without coordination is against the procedures, makes it difficult to secure the convoys and their workers and thus also harms the humanitarian effort in Gaza.”
The military also said that representatives from the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit spoke with members of Anera, who “confirmed that all the members of the organization who were part of the convoy, along with the humanitarian aid, were safe and sound and reached their destination safely.”
The Anera incident followed a shooting on Tuesday toward a United Nations World Food Programme humanitarian aid convoy inside Gaza. Israel said the shooting was a result of a communication error between army units, leading the US to call on Israel to “immediately rectify” its conduct.
On Wednesday, the WFP suspended the movement of its employees across the Gaza Strip. It said at least 10 bullets struck one of its clearly marked vehicles as it approached an Israeli military checkpoint at the Wadi Gaza bridge, in northern Gaza, after completing a mission in the Strip’s south. No one was hurt.
“Humanitarian workers are there to help innocent civilians, and Israel must ensure they are protected,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller wrote on X.
The strikes came as the UN readies to inoculate some 640,000 children in Gaza against polio after an unvaccinated 10-month-old boy was found to have the Strip’s first case of the disease in 25 years.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office confirmed Wednesday night that there would be localized humanitarian truces in the Strip to facilitate the vaccination campaign.
Israel has previously come under intense criticism for harm to humanitarian convoys in Gaza. In April, the IDF struck a clearly marked World Central Kitchen aid convoy near Deir al-Balah, in the Strip’s center, killing seven aid workers. The army said the strike was a grave error, and two senior IDF officers were fired over the incident.
Times of Israel staff and Jacob Magid contributed to this report.
