Israel halts aid into northern Gaza, officials say, as clans deny Hamas stealing it

Israel has stopped aid from entering northern Gaza but is still allowing it to enter from the south, two officials say, after images were circulated of masked men on aid trucks, who clan leaders say are protecting aid and are not Hamas stealing it.

Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer tells reporters that aid is continuing to enter from the south, but did not specify whether any supplies were entering from the north.

A Gaza Humanitarian Foundation spokesperson says the group is exempt from a two-day suspension of humanitarian aid deliveries into the territory.

The Higher Commission for Tribal Affairs, which represents influential clans in Gaza, says that trucks had been protected as part of an aid security process managed “solely through tribal efforts.” The commission says that no Palestinian faction, a reference to Hamas, had taken part in the process.

Hamas, the terror group that has ruled Gaza for more than two decades but now controls only parts of the territory after nearly two years of war with Israel, denies any involvement.

Throughout the war, numerous clans, civil society groups, and factions – including Hamas’ secular political rival Fatah – have stepped in to help provide security for the aid convoys.

Clans made up of extended families connected through blood and marriage have long been a fundamental part of Gazan society.

Amjad al-Shawa, director of an umbrella body for Palestinian non-governmental organizations, says the aid protected by clans on Wednesday was being distributed to vulnerable families.

There is an acute shortage of food and other basic supplies after the nearly two-year military campaign by Israel that has displaced most of Gaza’s two million inhabitants.

Aid trucks and warehouses storing supplies have often been looted, frequently by desperate and starving Palestinians. Israel accuses Hamas of stealing aid for its own fighters or to sell to finance its operations, an accusation Hamas denies.

“The clans came … to form a stance to prevent the aggressors and the thieves from stealing the food that belongs to our people,” Abu Salman Al Moghani, a representative of Gazan clans, says, referring to Wednesday’s operation.