Almost 100 Gaza aid lorries violently looted, UN agency Unrwa says

Earlier, the Israeli military body responsible for humanitarian affairs in the Gaza Strip, Cogat, said on X: “With the challenges the UN aid organisations experience in distributing aid, we are working together on various measures that will facilitate the transfer of aid from the Kerem Shalom crossing to Gazans in need.”

“For months now, aid has been piling up on the Gazan side, after Israeli inspection, waiting for collection and distribution, and we’ve been taking many measures to assist with the pick-up of aid,” it added.

Israel has previously insisted there are no limits to the amount of aid that can be delivered into and across Gaza, and accused Hamas of stealing aid, which the group has denied.

Last week, a group of 29 non-governmental organisations said in a report that the looting of aid convoys was “a consequence of Israel’s targeting of the remaining police forces in Gaza, scarcity of essential goods, lack of routes and closure of most crossing points, and the subsequent desperation of the population amid these dire conditions”.

They cited media reports as saying that “many incidents are taking place close by or in full view of Israeli forces, without them intervening, even when truck drivers asked for assistance”.

Also on Monday, Palestinian authorities said Israeli strikes had killed more than 30 people across Gaza.

At least 17 were reportedly killed when a house was hit near Kamal Adwan hospital in the Beit Lahia Project, in northern Gaza.

The director of Gaza’s health ministry cited Kamal Adwan’s director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, as saying that the dead were members of the family of one of the hospital’s medics, Dr Hani Badran. A video purportedly showed Dr Badran being comforted on a ward, external.

The Hamas-run Civil Defence agency meanwhile said its first responders had recovered the bodies of seven people from a home that was struck in the north-west of Gaza City.

Another four people, including two children, were killed in an Israeli strike on a tent inside the Israeli-designated al-Mawasi humanitarian area, in southern Gaza, it added.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 43,920 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.