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Gaza warehouse broken into by ‘hordes of hungry people’, says WFP
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News correspondent Barbara Plett Usher and Emma Rossiter
BBC News
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EYAD BABA/AFP
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) says that “hordes of hungry people” have broken into a food supply warehouse in central Gaza.
Two people are reported to have died and several others injured in the incident, the programme said, adding that it was still confirming details.
Video footage from AFP news agency showed crowds breaking into the Al-Ghafari warehouse in Deir Al-Balah and taking bags of flour and cartons of food as gunshots rang out. It was not immediately clear where the gunshots came from.
In a statement, the WFP said humanitarian needs in Gaza had “spiralled out of control” after an almost three-month Israeli blockade that was eased last week.
The WFP said that food supplies had been pre-positioned at the warehouse for distribution.
The programme added: “Gaza needs an immediate scale-up of food assistance. This is the only way to reassure people that they will not starve.”
The WFP said it had “consistently warned of alarming and deteriorating conditions on the ground, and the risks imposed by limiting humanitarian aid to hungry people in desperate need of assistance”.
Israeli authorities said on Wednesday that 121 trucks belonging to the UN and the international community carrying humanitarian aid including flour and food were transferred into Gaza.
Israel began to allow a limited amount of aid into Gaza last week.
A controversial US and Israeli-backed group - the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) - was also established as a private aid distribution system. It uses US security contractors and bypasses the UN, which said it was unworkable and unethical.
The US and Israeli governments say the GHF, which has set up four distribution centres in southern and central Gaza, is preventing aid from being stolen by Hamas, which the armed group denies doing.
The UN Humans Right Office said 47 people were injured on Tuesday after people overran one of the GHF distribution sites in the southern city of Rafah, a day after it began working there.
Another senior UN official told journalists on Wednesday that desperate crowds were looting cargo off of UN aid trucks.
Jonathan Whittall, the head of the UN’s humanitarian office for the occupied Palestinian territories, also said there was no evidence that Hamas was diverting aid coordinated through credible humanitarian channels.
He said the real theft of relief goods since the beginning of the war had been carried out by criminal gangs which the Israeli army “allowed to operate in proximity to the Kerem Shalom crossing point in Gaza”.
The UN has argued that a surge of aid like the one during the recent ceasefire between Israeli and Hamas would reduce the threat of looting by hungry people and allow it to make full use of its well-established network of distribution across the Gaza Strip.
cross-posted from: https://rss.ponder.cat/post/193188
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He said the real theft of relief goods since the beginning of the war had been carried out by criminal gangs which the Israeli army “allowed to operate in proximity to the Kerem Shalom crossing point in Gaza”.
Yeah, I don’t know why anyone would expect anything else. It so obviously serves Israel’s interests.
Not at all by the militant faction hired to "escort” the aid trucks, right?
Could you elaborate?
If I had to guess I’d say they were referring to this guy and his crew
“ ⭕️ ISIS-linked gang leader behind Gaza aid looting resurfaces under Israeli protection —— In Gaza, criminal gang leader Yasser Abu Shabab and others like him have re-emerged under the guise of “securing aid,” donning uniforms and claiming to protect the limited humanitarian assistance entering the Strip.
Quds News Network reports that Abu Shabab has “established a fortified base in an Israeli-controlled zone in Rafah,” now a kill-zone.
These groups operate under Israeli military protection, routinely looting aid convoys, especially in areas like eastern Rafah and Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom).
Abu Shabab is a known leader of armed gangs linked to ISIS and involved in looting aid under Israeli protection. Last year, The New Arab reported that Abu Shabab, among others, was working alongside hundreds of thieves under the protection of Israeli occupation forces near the Kerem Shalom crossing, the primary entry point for aid convoys. He comes from the Tarabin Bedouin tribe, which spans from Sinai to southern Gaza and the Negev desert, and has been identified in a UN memo as “the main influential figure behind the widespread and organized looting” of aid convoys to Gaza. Operating from eastern Rafah, Abu Shabab leads a group armed thugs who attack trucks carrying food and other critical supplies into Gaza.
Multiple reports, including from Haaretz and The Washington Post, confirm that these gangs have been seen looting in full view of Israeli forces, who neither intervene nor prevent the theft.
Abu Shabab, recently active again on social media, boasts of his gang’s coordination, while his armed men beat aid drivers and demand protection money, worsening conditions for a starving population.
Meanwhile, Israel has systematically targeted Palestinian police and security officers assigned to guard aid deliveries. Despite international pressure, only a trickle of aid has been allowed in, with Israel striking those attempting to protect it. While Israel enables and facilitates the looting, its propaganda blames Hamas for stealing aid, deflecting responsibility and masking its own role in orchestrating chaos and famine in Gaza.”
That’s the one! Thanks for posting, really busy for several days.
I thought so.
its propaganda blames Hamas for stealing aid
Although, I’ve heard this from two friends from Gaza as well.
I’m sure Hamas has, but I believe armed groups under Israeli protection are the primary culprits. Iirc Israel would bomb Hamas guards before the aid would be looted and stolen.
I don’t doubt that at all.
