Israel ‘needs to do more’ to stop settlers sacking Gaza aid trucks, US says

Israeli officials “need to do more” to stop settlers attacking trucks loaded with food, water and other critical supplies from entering Gaza, a State Department spokesman said on Thursday.

The remarks came after videos emerged on X/Twitter showing Israeli settlers destroying packages of humanitarian assistance held on trucks bound for Gaza.

Vedant Patel, state spokesperson, said that he could not verify the fate of the trucks seen in the video. But he added that Israeli officials “need to do more to hold actors like this accountable when action is taken that is inconsistent with what we know is important, which is getting more humanitarian aid into Gaza”.

“What I can say...humanitarian aid must not, and can not, be restricted, stopped or interefered with,” he said.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre also addressed the issue of aid convoys being blocked or harrassed on Thursday. “We remain concerned about ongoing limited operations at the Rafah boarding crossing,” she said.

“This level of aid remains insufficient,” said Jean-Pierre at her daily briefing. “And we want to continue to press Israel to increase the level of assistant moving into Gaza. I cannot speak to the prime minister or domestic politics that is for him to speak to, what I can speak to is what we have been working on doing, and how much we understand the importance of getting that humanitarian aid in. And that's what we've been doing.”

A video posted by Axios’s Barak Ravid on Twitter on Monday showed at least a dozen if not more Israelis throwing packages appearing to contain bottled water on the ground, smashing them, as they crossed from the West Bank into Israel, bound for Gaza. Other videos and news reports, such as one from Haaretz this week,