JERUSALEM / ISTANBUL

Far-right Israeli settlers tried to obstruct the passage of trucks carrying humanitarian aid into the blockaded Gaza Strip via an Israeli port on Tuesday, local media said.

According to Haaretz newspaper, nearly 20 Israeli activists from a far-right organization called Tsav 9 (Order 9) gathered at Ashdod Port, one of Israel’s three main cargo ports, to prevent the passage of any Gaza-bound aid trucks.

The Israeli protesters vowed to prevent the dispatch of humanitarian aid to Gaza, where a hunger crisis has unfolded.

Israel has kept Gaza crossings closed to food, medical, and humanitarian aid since March 2, deepening an already severe humanitarian crisis in the enclave, according to government, human rights, and international reports.

In recent days, Israel has promoted a misleading narrative claiming that it allows aid into the enclave, even though only about 100 trucks have entered, less than 1% of the population's basic needs.

Gaza’s government media office accused Israel of launching a disinformation campaign about aid access into the enclave to cover its “criminal policies of genocide and ethnic cleansing.”

“No real humanitarian aid entered Gaza despite the worsening humanitarian tragedy there,” the media office director, Ismail Thawabteh, told Anadolu.

He said hunger in Gaza has reached phase 5, the highest level on the UN’s acute food security scale, which is classified as famine.

According to the media office, at least 58 Palestinians starved to death in Gaza since October 2023.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive against Gaza since October 2023, killing over 54,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war crimes against defenseless civilians in the enclave.