Organised looting worsens plight of Palestinians in Gaza

Mr Hazem Isleem, a Palestinian truck driver, was passing through the ruins of the southern Gaza Strip in November with a truckload of aid when armed looters ambushed his convoy.

- NYTIMES

JERUSALEM - Mr Hazem Isleem, a Palestinian truck driver, was passing through the ruins of the southern Gaza Strip in November with a truckload of aid when armed looters ambushed his convoy.

One of the gunmen broke into his truck, forcing him to drive to a nearby field and unload thousands of kilograms of flour intended for hungry Palestinians, he said by phone from Gaza.

By the next morning, the gang had stripped virtually all of the supplies from the convoy of about 100 trucks of United Nations aid, enough to feed tens of thousands of people, in what the UN described as one of the worst such episodes of the war.

"It was terrifying," said Mr Isleem, 47, whom the looters held for 13 hours while they pillaged the flour. "But the worst part was we weren't able to deliver the food to the people."

Israel's bombardment and invasion of Gaza in response to the Hamas-led Oct 7 attack in 2023 have unleashed a humanitarian crisis in the enclave, with more than 45,000 people dead, according to local health officials, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Hunger is widespread, and Israel has placed restrictions on the entry of aid into Gaza and blocked movement of aid trucks between the north and south.

Though Hamas has been routed in much of the territory, Israel has not put an alternative government in place. In parts of southern Gaza, armed gangs have filled the resulting power vacuum, leaving aid groups unwilling to risk delivering supplies.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said in December that it would no longer deliver aid through Kerem Shalom, the main border crossing between Israel and southern Gaza, because of the breakdown in law and order.

Hundreds of truckloads of relief are piling up at the crossing, in part because aid groups fear they will be looted.