One of the first aid shipments to arrive in the Gaza Strip through a U.S.-built pier was looted, officials said, highlighting the challenges of securely delivering humanitarian assistance in a territory with serious food shortages. Crowd of Palestinians intercepted a convoy of trucks loaded with goods from the pier, hastily grabbing and running off with the contents. The U.S. State Department did not respond to requests for comment regarding the incident. Aid groups and the United Nations attribute the hunger crisis in Gaza to Israel’s restrictions on aid entering the enclave and black marketers seizing supplies to sell at inflated prices.
For months, Palestinians have forcibly taken aid off trucks as famine threatens Gaza. U.N. officials say the looting reflects the desperation of ordinary people trying to feed themselves and their families and has decreased when substantial aid consistently enters the enclave. However, on Saturday, 11 of the 16 trucks leaving the pier with aid were looted en route to a World Food Program warehouse, prompting the food aid agency to suspend deliveries from the pier on Sunday and Monday. Footage showed chaotic scenes of men grabbing and hurling boxes of supplies from a truck near Gaza’s coast.
Recent aid deliveries have been transported from the pier to an Israeli-controlled section of Gaza, offloaded onto different trucks, and transferred to population centers. It remains unclear what measures have been taken to protect the aid trucks after they leave the Israeli-controlled area. Incidents like the looting on Saturday are likely to recur unless more Israeli-approved routes for delivering aid are established to prevent crowds. This comes as aid shipments through the main border crossings in southern Gaza have declined significantly since Israel invaded the eastern part of the southern city of Rafah and closed the border crossing there.
In April, U.S. officials had hoped that the pier operation would initially bring in enough aid for around 90 trucks per day, with plans to scale up to 150 per day. However, the war-torn territory, with a population of about 2.2 million, is more reliant than ever on humanitarian assistance due to the devastation caused by seven months of war and strict Israeli inspections and restrictions at crossing points. The primary U.N. agency for Palestinian aid, UNRWA, reported that aid shipments through the southern routes have almost come to a standstill, with only 69 trucks entering through the two crossings in a 15-day period, the lowest rate since the start of the conflict.
The situation in Gaza underscores the urgent need for more effective and secure methods of delivering humanitarian aid to the population. The hunger crisis, exacerbated by Israel’s restrictions and the actions of black marketeers, continues to threaten the lives of ordinary Palestinians in Gaza. As aid groups work tirelessly to provide assistance, additional Israeli-approved routes for delivering aid are necessary to prevent further looting and ensure that vital supplies reach those most in need. The international community must address the ongoing challenges of delivering aid in conflict-affected areas to prevent further suffering among vulnerable populations.
