Looting of Gaza’s stores as Israel continues 60-day blockade of aid

Increased looting of food stores and community kitchens in the Gaza Strip shows growing desperation as hunger spreads two months after Israel cut off supplies to the Palestinian territory, Reuters reported aid officials saying.

Palestinian residents and aid officials said at least five incidents of looting took place across the enclave yesterday, including at community kitchens, merchants’ stores, and the UN Palestinian refugee agency’s (UNRWA) main complex in Gaza.

Israeli forces are continuing their genocidal bombing and ground offensive across Gaza that began nearly 19 months ago. Israeli air strikes killed at least 12 Palestinians yesterday, the Ministry of Health said.

The looting “is a grave signal of how serious things have become in the Gaza Strip — the spread of hunger, the loss of hope and desperation among residents as well as the absence of the authority of the law,” said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organisations Network (PNGO) in Gaza.

Thousands of displaced people broke into the UNRWA complex in Gaza City late yesterday, stealing medicines from its pharmacy and damaging vehicles, said Louise Wateridge, a senior official for the agency based in Jordan.

“The looting, while devastating, is not surprising in the face of total systemic collapse. We are witnessing the consequences of a society brought to its knees by prolonged siege and violence,” she said in a statement.

Hamas, which governs the enclave, deployed thousands of police and security forces across Gaza after a ceasefire took effect in January, but its armed presence shrunk sharply since Israel resumed large-scale attacks in March.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, director of the Government Media Office, described the looting incidents as “isolated individual practices that do not reflect the values and ethics of our Palestinian people.”

He said that despite being targeted, Gaza authorities were “following up on these incidents and addressing them in a way that ensures the preservation of order and human dignity.”

Malnutrition

Al-Thawabta said Israel, which since 2 March has blocked the entry of medical, fuel, and food supplies into Gaza, was to blame.

Israel has previously denied that Gaza was facing a hunger crisis. It has not made clear when and how aid will be resumed.

The United Nations warned earlier this week that acute malnutrition among Gaza’s children was worsening.

Community kitchens that have provided lifelines for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are at risk of closure due to lack of supplies, and face an additional threat from looting.

“This is going to undermine the ability of the community kitchens to provide meals to a great number of families, and an indication that things have reached an unprecedentedly difficult level,” PNGO’s Shawa said.

More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s campaign in Gaza in October 2023.

Much of the narrow coastal enclave has been reduced to rubble, leaving hundreds of thousands of people sheltering in tents or bombed-out buildings.

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