On Saturday, a convoy of 109 United Nations aid lorries loaded with food was violently looted in Gaza, according to the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA). At least ninety-seven lories were wasted and their drivers were forced at gunpoint to unload their aid after passing through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing with southern Gaza and called to be one of the worst incidents of its kind ever.

Aid Convoy Attacked Aimed Civil Unrest: 

It has been reported that masked men attacked the convoy and threw grenades at them. Commissioner-general of Unrwa Philippe Lazzarini did not identify the perpetrators, but he did say that in Gaza, there was the “total breakdown of civil order,” and it has “become an impossible environment to operate in”.

Desperation And Grave Shortages Loom

According to Unrwa, unless immediate action is taken, grave shortages in food for two million people who rely on humanitarian aid to remain alive will worsen.

That followed after Israeli forces launched a major ground offensive in the north and the UN said fewer aid lorries had entered Gaza last month than at any time since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in October 2023.

Masked Attackers and Grenades Used in Assault

Saturday’s looting was first reported by Reuters news agency that quoted an Unrwa official in Gaza who said that Israeli authorities told the convoy that it had to depart at short notice via an unfamiliar route from Kerem Shalom.

The Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza said more than twenty members of gangs involved in stealing aid trucks were killed by its security staff in an operation carried out in cooperation with “tribal committees”, a network of traditional family clans.

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Challenges in Humanitarian Aid Delivery

Asked at a news conference in Geneva on Monday for comment on the route, Lazzarini said he could not comment but confirmed the looting and said, “We have been warning a long time ago about the total breakdown of civil order.

We still had local capacity, people who were escorting the convoy until four or five months ago. This has completely gone, which means we are in an environment where local gangs, and local families, are struggling among each other to take control of any business or any activities taking place in the south. It has become an impossible environment to operate in.

He said thousands of people desperate for food have tried to storm the Unrwa-run vocational center in the southern city of Khan Younis because they believed aid had been delivered there. But the convoys were looted and there was nothing to take from the warehouses.

Israeli Authorities Criticized Over Responsibilities

Unrwa stated X criticizing Israeli authorities for continuing to “disregard their legal obligations under international law to ensure the population’s basic needs are met and to facilitate the safe delivery of aid”.  “That includes responsibilities that continue when trucks enter the Gaza Strip until people are reached with essential assistance”.

For months now, aid has been piling up on the Gazan side. After the Israeli inspection, we are waiting for collection and distribution, and we’ve been taking many measures to assist with the pick-up of aid,” it added. Israel has previously insisted that there are no limits to the amount of aid that can be delivered into and across Gaza and accused Hamas of stealing aid, which the group has denied.

Last week, a coalition of 29 nongovernmental organizations stated in a report that the raiding of humanitarian aid convoys was “a result of Israel’s targeting of the remaining police forces in Gaza, shortage of essential goods, lack of routes and closure of most crossing points, and the ensuing desperation of the population under these dramatic circumstances.”

Escalating Violence in Gaza

They quoted news reports saying that “many incidents are taking place close by or in full view of Israeli forces, without them intervening, even when truck drivers asked for assistance”. Also on Monday, Palestinian authorities said Israeli strikes had killed more than 30 people across Gaza. At least 17 were reportedly killed when a house was hit near Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Beit Lahia Project, in northern Gaza.  According to reports, more than 43,920 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the campaign.