The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says a convoy of more than 100 UN aid trucks carrying food to Gaza was violently looted on Saturday.
Ninety-seven lorries were lost and their drivers forced at gunpoint to unload their aid after passing through the Israeli-controlled Karim Shalom crossing with southern Gaza, believed to be one of its kind. One of the worst incidents.
Eyewitnesses said the convoy was attacked by masked men who threw grenades.
UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini did not identify the perpetrators, but said the “complete breakdown of civil order” in Gaza meant “it has become an impossible environment to operate in”.
According to UNRWA, without immediate intervention, acute food shortages for two million people are set to worsen.
A UN-backed assessment warned earlier this month. “There was a strong possibility that there was going to be a famine in the northern Gaza Strip.”.
It came as Israeli forces launched a major ground offensive in the north and the United Nations said fewer aid trucks entered Gaza last month than at any time since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023. happened
Saturday’s looting was first reported by the news agency Reuters, which quoted an UNRWA official in Gaza as saying that the convoy had been directed by Israeli authorities to leave Karim Shalom for “a Depart at short notice by unfamiliar route”.
Lazzarini said he could not comment on the report when asked at a news conference in Geneva on Monday, but confirmed the looting and said: “We warned long ago about the total breakdown of civil order. have been.”
“Until four or five months ago, we still had local capacity, people carrying convoys. It’s completely gone, which means we’re in an environment where local groups , the local families are fighting among themselves to control any business or any activity in the South. It has become an impossible environment to work in.”
He added that hundreds of people desperate for food had tried to storm a vocational center run by UNRWA in the southern city of Khan Yunis because they thought aid had been delivered there.
“But the caravans were looted and there was absolutely nothing to take from the warehouses.”
UNRWA issued a separate statement on X, accusing Israeli authorities of “ignoring their legal obligations under international law to ensure that the basic needs of the population are met.” and facilitate safe delivery of aid”.
“Such obligations continue until the trucks enter the Gaza Strip, until the necessary aid reaches the people.”
Earlier, Kogat, the Israeli military agency responsible for humanitarian affairs in the Gaza Strip, told X: “With the challenges faced by UN aid organizations in the distribution of aid, we are working together on various initiatives that will will facilitate the transition of the Karim Shalom crossing to the needy of Gaza.
“For months now, after Israeli inspections, aid has been piling up in Gaza, waiting to be collected and distributed, and we are taking a number of steps to help get the aid in,” he added. “
Israel has previously insisted that there is no limit to aid flows into and across Gaza, and has accused Hamas of stealing the aid, which the group denies.
A group of 29 non-governmental organizations said in a report last week that the looting of aid convoys was “an attempt by Israel to target the remaining police forces in Gaza, the lack of essential supplies, the lack of routes and most of the crossing points.” The closure is the result, and the consequent desperation of the population in the midst of these dire circumstances”.
“Many of the incidents are happening in close or full view of Israeli forces, without intervening, even when truck drivers call for help,” he said, citing media reports.
On October 7, 2023, Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel, which killed approximately 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage.
Since then, more than 43,920 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry.
