The boats that Israel halted off the coast of the Gaza Strip recently were supposed to be delivering nothing but humanitarian aid, such as food and medical supplies. And they did contain some such supplies. But they also carried a “cargo” of radicals with ties to terrorists. That is why Israel boarded the ships and denied them entry into Gaza, a location that has been used relentlessly to fire rockets at Israeli civilians.
But now, the claim that the ships’ sole purpose was to deliver aid that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip desperately needed has been disproved. After Israel captured and inspected the boats, it offered to ship into Gaza 21 truckloads of legitimate supplies that the boats had been carrying. But Gaza, which is ruled by the terrorist group Hamas, refused the aid after all.
That’s because the convoy of ships was never really about providing aid to Gaza — something Israel already permits in large quantities. It was about provoking an Israeli response to create unjustified sympathy for terrorist-run Gaza.
The world should not be fooled by this charade.