Gaza tribes warn of Israeli plan to ‘steal humanitarian aid’

The Higher Committee for Tribal Affairs in Gaza yesterday warned of an Israeli plan to use local gangs to steal humanitarian aid which is being allowed to enter the enclave for the first time in 11 weeks.

In an official statement, the committee said the Israeli occupation is preventing any “attempt to protect” aid that is supposed to enter Gaza, in order to carry out a “malicious plan” aimed at “fostering chaos and theft through criminal groups working directly under its control.”

It added that this strategy is part of a systematic effort to seize humanitarian assistance with the goal of starving the population and pushing them towards forced displacement.

The committee strongly condemned Israel’s refusal to ensure the protection of aid arriving through the Karm Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing, leaving it as an easy target for gangs and thieves who it says are supported by the occupation.

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It stressed that the Israeli occupation army plays a “real role in managing and fuelling chaos in Gaza,” by using “dirty networks of collaborators and thieves who have sold their loyalty and abandoned both their patriotism and tribal values.”

The committee announced the withdrawal of national and tribal protection from these individuals, describing them as “tools of the occupation in executing its criminal project.”

Before Israel’s closure of the crossings on 2 March, aid trucks entering Gaza were repeatedly subjected to theft and looting by gangs that, according to the Government Media Office, operate under army protection to spread chaos.

Over the months of genocide, the army also deliberately targeted personnel securing humanitarian aid arriving into the Gaza Strip in a policy that the Government Media Office said was to facilitate its theft through local gangs sponsored by Tel Aviv and to continue the policy of starving the Palestinian people.