Israel opens Zikim crossing in northern Gaza for aid trucks

Israel opened the Zikim Crossing in northern Gaza to allow humanitarian aid trucks into the enclave on Wednesday, COGAT, the Israeli military's arm that oversees aid flows, said in a statement. 

Dozens of masked Israeli settlers attacked a pair of Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, setting fire to vehicles and other property before clashing with Israeli soldiers sent to halt the rampage, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.

It was the latest in a series of attacks by young settlers in the West Bank.

Israeli police said four Israelis were arrested in what it described as "extremist violence," while the Israeli military said four Palestinians were wounded. Police and Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency said they were investigating.

A young Palestinian boy sits in a stroller along a destroyed road in Nuseirat, Gaza Strip on Tuesday. AFP

Videos on social media showed two charred trucks engulfed in flames, with a nearby building on fire. Settler violence has surged since the war in Gaza erupted two years ago. The attacks have intensified in recent weeks as Palestinians harvest their olive trees in an annual ritual.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian group Hamas returned his remains on Sunday as part of the US-brokered ceasefire deal that began last month. The bodies of four hostages taken in the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, are still in Gaza.

The UN humanitarian office last week reported more Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank in October than in any other month since it began keeping track in 2006. There were over 260 attacks, the office said.

Agencies