Gaza aid crisis: Armed groups seize 77 trucks amidst hunger
On the night from Friday to Saturday, armed groups seized dozens of trucks carrying humanitarian aid that had entered the Gaza Strip. Local aid organisations report that, in Gaza, currently under attack from Israel, there is hunger, and the assistance that does arrive is a mere drop in the ocean of needs.
Israel eased its blockade of the Gaza Strip at the beginning of May, but aid organisations are struggling to deliver humanitarian aid to the area. The situation on the ground is catastrophic.
Gaza: 77 trucks seized, aid plundered
The Israeli military, which resumed its offensive in March, continues its operations. On Saturday, among other targets, positions of snipers and a Hamas weapons production facility were bombed. The ongoing actions have led to the displacement of a large part of Gaza's over two million population to increasingly smaller areas, mainly along the coast and around Khan Yunis.
The United Nations warns that the situation in the Gaza Strip is currently the worst it has been since the conflict began 19 months ago. Despite the resumption of limited supplies, the entire population of the region faces a severe risk of hunger.
Israel, which completely blocked supplies to the enclave at the beginning of March, has begun allowing individual convoys from organisations such as the World Food Programme (WFP). These convoys deliver flour to bakeries in Gaza, but almost every transport attempt ends with plundering by starving residents. Such incidents occurred last night.
– After almost 80 days of complete blockade, communities are starving and no longer willing to watch as food passes by them, stated the WFP in a statement. The organisation sent 77 trucks loaded with flour to Gaza last night. As it reports, all were stopped along the way, and the food was taken mainly by starving people trying to feed their families.
The organisation stresses that sustained and substantial aid efforts are essential to regain the trust of the affected population. Once that confidence is reestablished, it is believed that widespread, direct food distributions to families throughout the Gaza Strip can recommence. It also highlights its current capacity to provide food assistance for the entire population of Gaza for two months.
Armed attackers seize aid
In an interview with Reuters, Amjad Al-Shawa, who leads the association of Palestinian aid organisations, pointed out that militant groups are taking advantage of the dire circumstances. On Saturday morning, a section of the World Food Programme convoy was halted near Khan Yunis. Al-Shawa acknowledged the extreme level of need, noting that many have gone without basic food like bread for weeks, but stressed that the looting by armed groups cannot be justified. He also stated that hundreds more aid trucks are urgently required and attributed the current humanitarian crisis to what he described as Israel’s deliberate policy of starvation.
Meanwhile, the American organisation Gaza Humanitarian Foundation operates its meal distribution points, but many aid groups refuse to cooperate, accusing the GHF of lacking neutrality. The scale of support remains dramatically insufficient. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, made this clear. "The aid that's being sent now makes a mockery to the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch," Lazzarini wrote on the platform X.
