Some 20 Palestinians were killed in operations by Palestinian authorities. Hamas in the south of the Gaza Strip against the criminal gangs that loot the humanitarian aid trucks that enter the enclave, official Gazan sources confirmed.
“A score of aid truck thieves died yesterday in an operation carried out by the security services in collaboration with the tribal committees”indicated this Tuesday a source from the Ministry of the Interior gazatí to the television channel Al Aqsalinked to Hamas.
READ ALSO: Armed men loot and steal 98 trucks with food for Gaza in unprecedented episode
Looting of aid trucks has become a growing problem in the enclave, where on Saturday a convoy of 109 trucks chartered by the World Food Program (PMA) and the Agency United Nations for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) was “violently looted”, the most serious incident of this type in more than thirteen months of war in Loopdenounced yesterday the UN.
Only eleven trucks reached their destination, and 98 at the moment remain unaccounted for, at the hands of these gangs who took the trucks at gunpoint.
“This security operation will not be the last. “It is the beginning of a larger, carefully planned operation that seeks to reach all those involved in the theft of aid trucks.”stated the Interior source, who promised “punish with an iron fist” to these bands.
The looting in the Fringe They are not new. Already in July, local sources told EFE that two families, Al Omur and madifrom the area of Rafahwhere most robberies occur, attacked trucks to steal supplies or collect contraband cigarettes, which are sold at very high prices.
But the situation has worsened in recent months, and looting has spread to the north of Loopwhere incidents similar to those in the south are observed, where there is an area of about two square kilometers that humanitarian agencies call “no man’s land” because help disappears.
The UN also denounced last week that 20 of the 14 trucks that its agencies introduced through the newly opened crossing of Kisufimalso in the south, “They were shot and looted” by these local armed groups.
“We need greater access to help and the opening of new routes to reach more people in need, but also security guarantees“said a spokesman for the UNwhich insists that at least 350 trucks a day are necessary to cover the pressing needs of the Gazans.
Israel argues that there is no limit to the aid that can come into Loopand blame the UN and other humanitarian agencies of not having sufficient resources to distribute the material. Last October, fewer trucks with humanitarian aid entered Gaza – 990, according to data from the UN– than any other month since the start of the war, October 7, 2023.
He Ministry of the Interior Gazan insisted that this campaign, which is carried out with the support of various Palestinian factions, is not directed “against specific clans” but it does aim to eliminate the phenomenon of truck theft, “which has seriously affected society and caused signs of famine in the south of the Gaza Strip”.
