The Palestinian Motor Sport & Motorcycle Federation has partnered with the Palestine Red Crescent Society, providing off-road vehicles that would transport food and medicine to civilians living in the West Bank amidst increasing Israeli military operations.
The first wave, which included vehicles like Jeep Wranglers with Red Crescent flags and markings, arrived on Wednesday in Tulkarm. Additional efforts to head to Jenin are currently in the works.
“With the help of Allah, 4×4 vehicles have successfully entered Tulkarm camp in collaboration with the Palestinian Red Crescent to distribute food and medicine and assist the sick,” reads a statement from the PMSMF. “Arrangements are now being made for entry into the city of Jenin and its camp.
“Over the past few hours, approval was granted for a handful of vehicles to enter, and we are awaiting coordination with the Red Crescent to increase the number for both Tulkarm and Jenin camps.”
The ongoing drive marks the federation’s largest collective humanitarian contribution during the war to date. The PMSMF, an FIA and FIM member club, is headquartered in Ramallah on the West Bank.
The PMSMF has occasionally issued statements concerning the war, generally framing them around achievements by Palestinian drivers. For example, when Palestinians swept the top four at the Jordan 4×4 Championship‘s season opener in February, the PMSMF described it as a “sign of hope despite the ongoing aggression at home.” Five months later, they directly called the conflict an “Israeli war of extermination against the Palestinian people” while speaking on Hussein Sheiokhi‘s podium in the second race of the Jordan 4×4 season.
Although Gaza is the main theater of the war between Israel and Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces have launched airstrikes or cross over into the West Bank for raids. Armed Israeli settlers have also harassed and attack Palestinian residents in the region and have built settlements in violation of international law.
The IDF ramped up activities in the West Bank over the past week in what an official told the Associated Press was to “thwart pending attacks on Israeli civilians,” resulting in one of the largest military actions in the area since 2002 during the Second Intifada. Refugee camps in Jenin and Tulkarm were severely affected as water and electricity have been cut off. While the operations are publicly stated to be smaller than those in Gaza, civilians in Jenin point out the raids still leave them trapped with dwindling resources amidst destruction of the city’s infrastructure. Locals noted relief and medical efforts were stymied as well as the PRCS has to receive the green light from Israel before they could send out ambulances.
In Tulkarm, Sky News Arabia reported Wednesday that over 150 homes have been damaged with thirty percent of those living in the Nour Shams camp displaced. Likewise, The Jerusalem Post wrote eighty-five percent of the population in Jenin’s camps are being moved out towards the city.
Over ten months in, the war has resulted in significant regional and global ramifications that also extend to motorsport. The 2023 Jordan Baja, a round on the FIA and FIM Baja World Cups, was cancelled weeks after the fighting began. Attacks on the shipping by the Hamas-aligned Houthis in the Red Sea disrupted logistics for competitors at the Dakar Rally and World Rally-Raid Championship.