Gaza through the Rafah crossing
The Palestinian Red Crescent said that 65 trucks loaded with aid and 7 ambulances entered Gaza through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, bringing the number of trucks received since October 21 to 821, while fuel continues to be prevented from entering the Strip.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society announced on Thursday that 65 trucks loaded with aid, in addition to 7 ambulances, entered Gaza through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, while the entry of fuel continued to be prevented.
She said in a statement: “Today, the Palestinian Red Crescent crews received 65 trucks from the Egyptian Red Crescent, loaded with aid, in addition to 7 ambulances from the State of Kuwait, through the Rafah crossing.”
The association added, "The trucks contain food, water, relief aid, medical supplies, and medicines, while the occupation authorities have not allowed the entry of fuel until now."
This brings the number of trucks received since last October 21 to 821 trucks, according to the Palestinian Association.
Fuel continues to be prevented from entering the Gaza Strip, causing a number of hospitals to stop working and many vital services, and returning the conditions of people in the Gaza Strip to the old primitive life.
On October 21, the first relief convoy, including 20 trucks, mostly medical and food supplies, entered Gaza, 13 days after the tightened Israeli siege on the Strip and the bombing of the Rafah crossing.
The residents of Gaza are suffering from a catastrophic humanitarian and health situation, as about 1.4 million people out of 2.3 million have been displaced from their homes, and Israel has deprived them of supplies of food, water, medicine, electricity, and fuel, in light of intense bombardment.
For 35 days, the Israeli occupation army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, leaving 10,812 Palestinian martyrs, including 4,412 children and 2,918 women, and wounding more than 26,000 others. 182 Palestinians were martyred and thousands were arrested in the occupied West Bank, according to official sources.
The weapon of boycott How do popular boycott campaigns affect Western support for Israel?
As the genocide carried out by Israel against Palestinian civilians in Gaza has continued for more than a month, Palestinians and their sympathizers from around the world have come to see boycott campaigns as their last resort to confront Israeli aggression.
Grassroots boycott campaigns have long been used as a tool for political activism aimed at bringing about needed change on various issues, from civil rights to environmental concerns. Boycott movements have historically succeeded in combating apartheid in South Africa, and in obtaining their civil rights for black Americans.
In recent years, the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, and the violence, genocide, and displacement that it entailed and continues to entail, has been a focal point for these campaigns, as supporters of the Palestinian cause called for an economic, cultural, and academic boycott of Israel.
Which was the reason for the emergence of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, the campaign known as BDS , about two decades ago, which in turn leads activists, organizations and institutions around the world to express meaningful solidarity with the Palestinian struggle, to boycott Israeli products, as well as products Major companies supporting Israel.
County weapon
As the genocide carried out by Israel against Palestinian civilians in Gaza continues for more than a month, Palestinians and their sympathizers from all over the world have come to see boycott campaigns as their last resort in the face of Israeli aggression.
In response to the ongoing Israeli bombing of Gaza, and the absolute American and Western support, recent weeks have witnessed growing calls among Arab and Islamic peoples, and even global sympathizers, to boycott the products of companies that support Israel.
The invitations extended to a number of the most famous international brands that are widely popular in Arab markets, such as McDonald's, Starbucks, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, and Disney, especially after many of them announced their stance in support of Israel.
McDonald's and Carrefour, in particular, were subjected to a violent campaign after their branches in Israel announced the distribution of thousands of free meals to the Israeli army, which angered Arab and Muslim customers alike, especially since it came at a time when Gazans were deprived of basic necessities of life such as water, food, medicine, and fuel.
Boycott campaigns are active again
In the midst of unprecedented Israeli violence accompanied by an escalating siege on Gaza, the BDS movement returned to the spotlight, as calls for a boycott spread widely on social media sites, and the campaign gained great momentum in the Arab and Islamic worlds since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, which claimed the lives of more than 10 people. Thousands of people, half of them children, according to the latest toll announced by the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
Social media witnessed the spread of many boycott campaigns led by young people savvy in the field of technology. While websites and phone applications appeared to guide citizens to the products and companies that should be boycotted, an extension called “PalestinePact” (which in Arabic means the Palestine Charter) appeared, running on the Google Chrome browser with the aim of hiding products included in online advertisements if they were on the boycott list.
The boycott campaigns did not stop only in the technological field, but some countries, including Kuwait, witnessed the use of traditional methods as well, as giant billboards were hung showing pictures of children covered in blood, with shocking slogans written on them, including: “Did you kill a Palestinian today?” With the hashtag “boycotters”, in a message directed to consumers who have not yet joined the boycott campaign, according to what was reported by Agence France-Presse .
On a related level, economic boycott campaigns were accompanied by popular calls demanding their governments to sever their relations with Israel, while pro-Palestinian marches were organized in major Arab and international capitals. Turkey, Jordan, and other Latin countries also recalled their ambassadors to Israel, and Saudi Arabia announced the cessation of normalization talks, while South Africa summoned its diplomats for consultations.
What is the economic impact of the boycott movement?
BDS believes that BDS campaigns, organized at a grassroots level, lead to companies and large investors changing their attitudes towards Israel and its racist and colonial policies against the Palestinians.
According to a United Nations report, the BDS movement was a major factor in the decline in foreign direct investment in the Israeli economy by 46% in 2014, compared to 2013. The World Bank partly attributed the 24% decline in Palestinian imports from Israeli companies to boycott campaigns. Reports issued by the Israeli government and the American Rand Corporation predicted that the boycott movement would cost the Israeli economy billions of dollars in the coming years.
At the level of international companies, major European companies such as Veolia, Orange, and CRH withdrew from the Israeli market after strong campaigns against them for their involvement in Israeli violations, which caused direct losses to the Israeli economy exceeding tens of billions of dollars, according to the report. BDS movement website .
In parallel, international investors, including the Presbyterian Church in the United States, the Methodist Church, the Dutch pension fund PGGM, and the governments of Norway, Luxembourg, and New Zealand, have withdrawn their investments from companies implicated in Israeli violations of international law. Major European private banks, including Noreida Bank and Danske Bank, and wealthy individuals, including George Soros and Bill Gates, have also withdrawn their investments from companies targeted by the boycott.