‘They Are Starving!’ CNN’s Clarissa Ward Confronts Israeli Protesters Trying to Block Aid to Gaza
CNN’s Clarissa Ward engaged in an intense exchange while marching with Israeli protesters trying to block aid trucks from getting to Gaza where Palestinians are starving.
Ward reported that many of the protesters are family members of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas. They have staked out the Kerem Shalom border crossing for six weeks, she said, trying to keep international aid from getting into Gaza.
“So, you can see the trucks with aid over there. The police had been trying to stop the protesters, but then they’ve just cut through this field and they’re pushing ahead,” Ward said. One of the protesters said the trucks were transporting bullets, not bags of rice.
Another protester said, “I’m telling you here and now, if we knew it’s getting to the children of Gaza, we will do it. This does not arrive at their doorstep. This arrives into the tunnels of Hamas that are fighting us and holding our hostages.”
“There’s not evidence to support that all of this aid is going to Hamas,” Ward told a group of protesters:
PROTESTER 1: This is intelligence only for terror. That’s why they’re getting, they should get only the minimum calories required to survive.
WARD: They’re starving to death.
PROTESTER 1: They are not starving.
WARD: They are starving!
PROTESTER 1: You know what? If they are starving to death, give us back, give our hostages back. Not a single loaf of bread should go there ’til our hostages are coming back.
WARD: To many people in the world listening to what you’re saying and what you’re protesting for, it sounds like, A, a contravention of international law, and B, incredibly callous in the face of an epic humanitarian catastrophe. In the face of children starving to death, people can’t understand why anyone in their right mind would advocate for stopping aid.
PROTESTER 2: Hamas has no fair play, Hamas has no rules. Hamas is holding civilians!
The first protester claimed, “You know, even if there is a humanitarian crisis — and there’s not — even if there is, it’s my right and duty to prioritize” my people “over any Gazan babies.”
Ward told Jake Tapper that counter-protesters were working to get a convoy of aid into Gaza.
“Really, this does underscore that Israel is not a monolith,” Ward said. “There are different people who have different feelings about this war and how it should be dealt with. And there are those who believe that depriving the people of Gaza of aid is certainly not the answer.”
Watch the clip above via CNN.
