UN agency says 2 killed as Gaza aid convoy looted; Hamas claims organization ‘fully responsible’

Two people have been killed in northern Gaza, as gunmen attacked an aid convoy, the World Food Program says, prompting Hamas to accuse the UN agency of having failed to coordinate security.

The World Food Program says in a statement that “a coordinated movement to bring in 40 trucks on behalf of humanitarian partners” on Sunday “was faced with violent, armed looting, resulting in the deaths of two.”

“During the armed looting, five trucks of commodities were lost,” it adds.

Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that runs the Gaza Strip, says in a statement that “a catastrophic mistake” by the WFP “claimed the lives of two citizens and injured dozens with bullets.”

“We hold it fully responsible and demand that it not violate the protocol followed regarding coordination to secure aid trucks,” the statement says.

The WFP says in its statement that, for the past two weeks, “nearly every movement of aid through crossings in south and central Gaza has resulted in violence, looting, and tragic deaths, due to attacks and the absence of law and order along convoy routes inside Gaza.”

The organization says that it is still following “procedures of coordination set in place in previous months,” and that it has “repeatedly warned of the dangers of movement in the absence of law and order” in the Palestinian territory.