Photo: Thousands of Palestinian civilians gather in a desperate attempt to obtain bread for their starving families, November 18, 2024 © user
Food prices have soared in Gaza after nearly 100 aid trucks were looted, amid an already severe food crisis caused by more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas.
The weekend hijacking of 98 trucks from a convoy of 109 people – the largest such attack to date – has worsened shortages of food, medicine and other aid, according to Margaret Harris, spokesperson for the World Health Organization. “It is increasingly difficult to deliver aid,” she said Tuesday.
The amount of aid entering the besieged Palestinian territory has fallen to its lowest level in 11 months, according to official Israeli data, despite the United States' ultimatum last month for more humanitarian supplies to reach the Gaza's desperate population of 2.3 million, almost all of whom have been displaced.
Since the beginning of November, Israel says it has allowed the entry of an average of 88 trucks per day, a fraction of the 600 trucks daily that humanitarian organizations say are necessary to meet basic needs. In the northern third of Gaza, where Israeli forces have been waging an offensive for weeks that has killed hundreds of people and displaced tens of thousands of others, famine may already have set in, according to experts.
Humanitarian organizations operating in the Gaza Strip have struggled to collect and distribute supplies amid Israeli military activity, blockades of movement and Israeli attacks that have targeted workers. According to the UN, around a third of aid is stolen by armed gangs who resell it at exorbitant prices.
The market fluctuates, but before the war a bag of flour cost 40 shekels (£8.40) and powdered milk 30 shekels (£6.30). Today, in the center and south of the Strip, where the majority of the population has fled, prices are as high as 375 shekels (£80) and 300 shekels (£64) respectively – if one can tell. supply.
Israel denies deliberately restricting aid to Gaza or turning a blind eye to the proliferation of gangs and organized crime since the October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war. He also accuses Hamas of diverting aid.
The Palestinian militant group denies the accusations and in turn claims that Israel has attempted to foment anarchy by systematically targeting Hamas-employed police officers who guard aid convoys.
On Tuesday, reports emerged that, in the face of renewed fears of famine, Hamas – whose military and governing capabilities have been severely degraded during thirteen months of fighting – had formed a new armed force to combat the looting.
The “popular and revolutionary committees,” established earlier this month, are made up of well-equipped Hamas fighters, allied groups and local clans, and have already carried out 15 missions in which looters were ambushed and killed, according to a Hamas official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.
After the UN convoy was hijacked on Saturday, Hamas' interior ministry said late Monday that 20 people had been killed during an operation to recover the goods.
In a statement, Hamas said the thefts had “severely affected society and led to signs of famine in the southern Gaza Strip”, and warned that the operation was the start of a wider campaign to tackle the problem.
Community leaders in the central Gaza Strip said local people defended themselves against looters and managed to recover some of the stolen trucks, which were then returned to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). Witnesses described another shooting over the weekend, when Hamas fighters in two cars chased men suspected of looting who were driving another vehicle, resulting in the suspects' deaths.
Shaban, an engineer from Gaza City displaced to Deir al-Balah, told Reuters: “There is a campaign against the thieves, we see it. If the campaign continues and aid flows in, prices will fall as the stolen aid appears on the markets at a high price. »
Since a truce collapsed after a week last November, ceasefire negotiations in the Gaza war have repeatedly failed. Qatar, which played the role of mediator, announced earlier this month that it was renouncing its role until Israel and Hamas showed “will and seriousness” in the talks.
At the same time, hopes of a truce are growing in the war which has pitted Israel against the powerful Lebanese militia Hezbollah for two months.
During a visit to Beirut on Tuesday, Biden administration envoy Amos Hochstein said a deal was “within our reach” after “very constructive discussions” with the speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah who acts as a mediator on behalf of the group.
The proposal is expected to focus on the withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces from the UN buffer zone separating the two countries, which will then be monitored by thousands of UN peacekeepers and Lebanese troops. additional. Israel's demand that it be able to maintain its “freedom of action” to respond to Hezbollah's threats remains a condition that Lebanon is unlikely to accept.
Translation: AFPS
