UN says nearly 100 Gaza aid trucks looted, the war’s worst theft ‘in terms of volume’
United Nations officials don’t specify who carried out the weekend ambush on humanitarian convoy; Hamas says it killed more than 20 ‘gang members involved in looting’
Nearly 100 trucks carrying food for Palestinians were violently looted on Saturday after entering Gaza in one of the worst aid losses during 13 months of war in the enclave, where hunger is deepening, two UN agencies told Reuters on Monday.
The convoy transporting food provided by UN agencies UNRWA and the World Food Program was instructed by Israel to depart at short notice via an unfamiliar route from Kerem Shalom border crossing, said Louise Wateridge, UNRWA Senior Emergency Officer.
Ninety-eight of the 109 trucks in the convoy were raided and some of the transporters were injured during the incident, she said, without detailing who carried out the ambush.
“This … highlights the severity of access challenges of bringing aid into southern and central Gaza,” she told Reuters.
“The urgency of the crisis cannot be overstated; without immediate intervention, severe food shortages are set to worsen, further endangering the lives of over two million people who depend on humanitarian aid to survive.”
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said there was “severe damage to the trucks and in some cases, total loss of cargo on the trucks,” calling the incident the worst instance of looting in Gaza “in terms of volume.”
The Hamas-controlled Gaza interior ministry said over 20 “gang members” involved in looting aid trucks were killed during an operation carried out by Hamas security forces in coordination with tribal committees.
“More than 20 members of gangs involved in stealing aid trucks were killed in a security operation carried out by security forces in cooperation with tribal committees,” the ministry said in a statement.
“Today’s security operation will not be the last,” it said, adding that “the phenomenon of truck thefts… has severely impacted society and led to signs of famine in southern Gaza.”
The statement called the operation “the beginning of a broad security campaign that has been long planned and will expand to include everyone involved in the theft of aid trucks,” who Hamas threatened to treat with “an iron fist.”
A WFP spokesperson confirmed the looting and said that many routes in Gaza were currently impassable due to security issues.
The Israeli military has said that attacking and stealing aid is an ongoing problem, especially in southern Gaza. COGAT, the military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, has said convoys are attacked by Hamas terrorists and known crime families. The military did not have an immediate response to the weekend’s attack.
An Israeli official said Israel had been working to address the humanitarian situation since the start of the war, adding that the main problem with aid deliveries was UN distribution challenges.
A UN aid official said on Friday that access for aid to Gaza had reached a low point, with deliveries to parts of the Israeli-besieged north of the enclave all but impossible amid the ongoing war sparked by Hamas’s devastating October 7, 2023, terror onslaught in southern Israel.
