Gaza Hamas ministry says over 20 killed in aid-looter operation

GAZA: Gaza’s Hamas-run interior ministry said Monday at least 20 people were killed in an operation targeting “gangs” that looted trucks bringing aid into the war-torn territory threatened with famine.

“More than 20 members of gangs involved in stealing aid trucks were killed in a security operation carried out by security forces in cooperation with tribal committees,” the ministry said in a statement.

“Today’s security operation will not be the last,” it said, adding that “the phenomenon of truck thefts… has severely impacted society and led to signs of famine in southern Gaza”.

The statement called the operation “the beginning of a broad security campaign that has been long planned and will expand to include everyone involved in the theft of aid trucks”.

A source from the European hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis told AFP it had received the bodies of 15 people killed in connection with Monday’s anti-looter operation.

An interior ministry source told AFP the 20 were killed in connection with the looting on Saturday of a World Food Programme convoy bringing aid into Gaza.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a press briefing in New York Monday that only 11 of the convoy’s 109 trucks made it to the warehouse after entering through the Kerem Shalom crossing near the Egyptian border.

He said there was “severe damage to the trucks and in some cases, total loss of cargo on the trucks”.

Dujarric called the incident the worst instance of looting in Gaza “in terms of volume”.

He said the convoy had been initially planned for Sunday but Israel’s military told it “to depart on short notice via an alternate, unfamiliar route”.

Israel, which imposed a total siege on the Hamas-ruled territory in the early stages of the war last year, often blames the inability of relief organisations to handle and distribute large quantities of aid.

Aid distribution is further complicated by shortages of fuel, war-damaged roads and looting, as well as fighting in densely populated areas and the repeated displacement of much of Gaza’s 2.4 million people.

Several humanitarian officials told AFP on condition of anonymity that almost half the aid that enters Gaza is looted, especially basic supplies.

A UN-backed assessment on Nov 9 said famine is looming in the northern Gaza Strip amid increased hostilities and a near-halt in food aid.

The Israeli military questioned the UN-back report’s credibility.