Nearly 100 aid trucks in Gaza convoy are lost to looters, says UN agency

Jerusalem: A large convoy of trucks carrying aid was "violently looted" in the Gaza Strip over the weekend and its drivers forced at gunpoint to unload supplies, the main United Nations agency that helps Palestinians said Monday, calling it one of the worst such incidents of the war.

The agency, known as UNRWA, said Monday that the convoy of 109 trucks had been driving from the Kerem Shalom border crossing in southern Gaza when it was looted Saturday. Nearly 100 of the trucks were lost, members of the convoy suffered unspecified injuries and other vehicles sustained extensive damage, the agency said.

The convoy -- carrying food supplies from UNRWA and the UN World Food Program -- had been scheduled to enter Gaza on Sunday, UNRWA said, but the Israeli military instructed it to leave a day earlier "at short notice via an alternate, unfamiliar route."

The agency said that the incident highlighted the "challenges of bringing aid into southern and central Gaza" despite months of attempts by aid agencies to help it arrive safely, and despite the urgency of the need. Earlier this month, a U.N.-backed panel said that all of Gaza faced a risk of famine between now and April, with the north at particular risk.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the episode. It was not clear who was responsible for the looting. In the past, Israel has accused Hamas militants of robbing aid convoys to supply their own forces.

UNRWA said that the frequent looting of humanitarian aid convoys was in part a result of the collapse of law and order in wartime Gaza, the growing desperation among Palestinians there and the policies of the Israeli authorities, who "continue to disregard their legal obligations under international law" to ensure that sufficient aid safely reached Palestinians in the territory.

The humanitarian situation in Gaza has continued to deteriorate in the 14th month of Israel's military offensive against Hamas, which attacked southern Israel in October 2023.

Official Israeli government figures this month showed that Israel, which controls all the crossings into Gaza, was letting significantly less food and fewer supplies into the territory than in earlier months, even as a 30-day deadline set by the Biden administration passed without a substantial improvement in conditions there.

Israeli officials have denied creating obstacles to aid deliveries. They have blamed aid agencies for failing to deliver the aid that it has allowed into Gaza, and have said that raids on aid trucks by Palestinians have prevented proper distribution.

The threat of looting and attacks by armed gangs has hindered relief groups from delivering assistance in southern Gaza. The Israeli campaign in Gaza toppled much of the Hamas government, and there is no civilian administration to take its place.

In much of Gaza, there are no police officers to prevent chaos as organized crime groups fill the vacuum. Their affiliations -- whether to Gaza clans or armed groups like Hamas -- are unclear.