Gaza’s Hamas-run interior ministry has said that at least 20 people have been killed in an operation targeting “gangs” accused of looting trucks bringing aid into the war-torn territory which is facing the threat of famine.
Gunmen attacked and looted about 100 trucks carrying desperately needed supplies over the weekend, the biggest such attack during 13 months of war in the territory and new evidence of the growing power of Gaza’s criminal gangs.
In a statement late on Monday, the Gaza interior ministry said that more than 20 people had been killed “in a security operation carried out by security forces in cooperation with tribal committees”.
The statement said that thefts had “severely affected society and led to signs of famine in southern Gaza”, and warned that the operation was the start of a broader campaign to tackle the problem.
An interior ministry source told AFP the 20 were killed in connection with the looting on Saturday of a convoy which was transporting thousands of tonnes of food provided by the UN agencies Unrwa and the World Food Programme (WFP). It was attacked shortly after entering Gaza on Saturday, UN officials and local community leaders said.
Ninety-eight trucks of the 109-truck convoy were looted and some transporters were injured during the incident, said Louise Wateridge, Unrwa’s senior emergency officer.
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The incident “highlights the severity of access challenges of bringing aid into southern and central Gaza”, she told Reuters.
“The urgency of the crisis cannot be overstated; without immediate intervention, severe food shortages are set to worsen, further endangering the lives of over 2 million people who depend on humanitarian aid to survive.”
Community leaders in central Gaza said local people had fought back against the looters of the convoy, who were armed with automatic rifles, and managed to retrieve some of the stolen trucks which were then returned to the WFP.
A spokesperson for the Internally Displaced Civilians Association (IDCA) in Deir al-Balah said the attack meant that two bakeries serving roughly 1 million people in central Gaza had announced they would not be able to provide any bread until they receive new supplies.
The IDCA, one of a number of informal groups that have sprung up to represent the interests of Gaza’s 1.8 million displaced people, said Israeli authorities had been repeatedly warned that armed gangs were operating along roads leading into Gaza from specific entry points.
“A better route for aid was repeatedly proposed, but [the Israelis] have refused all these requests,” the spokesperson said.
UN officials said the convoy had been instructed by Israel to depart at short notice through an unfamiliar route from the Kerem Shalom border crossing.
Gaza is facing deepening anarchy as the last remnants of civil order break down, leaving a vacuum increasingly filled by armed gangs, clans, powerful families and criminals.
In April, aid officials said they feared Gaza would become “Mogadishu on the Mediterranean”.
The 13-month Israeli military offensive has removed Hamas from power in most of Gaza but the Islamist militant group has not been replaced by any other form of governance.
Systematic targeting of Gaza’s police force, which Israel considers part of Hamas, and the release of hundreds of prisoners from jails by the group early in the conflict have exacerbated the chaos.
Waterbridge did not identify the attackers but UN officials have said that powerful families in the south of Gaza long known for their involvement in looting had been behind a series of attacks on convoys in recent weeks.
“This isn’t desperate people looking to feed themselves or their families. It is pure organised crime, by people who are heavily armed and making a lot of money. They are taking supplies paid for by member states. It’s a disgrace,” one senior aid official said earlier this month.
Aid officials in Gaza describe the situation in much of the territory, where more than 80% of the population of 2.3 million have been displaced and more than two-thirds of buildings have been destroyed or damaged in 13 months of war, as “apocalyptic”.
An Israeli official said Israel had been working to address the humanitarian situation since the start of the war, but blame aid organisations and the UN for failing to distribute aid that is cleared for entry to Gaza.
A WFP spokesperson confirmed the looting and said that many routes in Gaza were currently unpassable because of security issues.
A UN aid official said on Friday that delivering aid across Gaza was now more difficult than ever before, with parts of the besieged north of the territory almost impossible to reach. Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza was triggered by the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel last year.
