Witnesses and aid groups report a surge in looting in desperate Gaza

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Armed groups and others have looted warehouses of supplies in northern Gaza as desperation spikes after more than two months of Israel’s blockade of the territory, locals and aid workers said Saturday as Israel’s latest airstrikes killed more than a dozen people.

Unidentified people, both armed and unarmed, have been looting U.N. and aid groups' warehouses, as well as bakeries and shops since Wednesday, according to witnesses, organizations in Gaza and messages that were circulated among security officials for aid groups and were seen by The Associated Press.

Israel has from entering Gaza since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Hamas in March, throwing the territory of over 2 million people into what is believed to be the worst humanitarian crisis in nearly 19 months of war.

Israel has said the blockade and its renewed military campaign are intended to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages it still holds, most of them thought to be dead, and to disarm the Palestinian militant group.

The U.N. high commissioner for human rights previously warned that starving civilians as a military tactic is a war crime.

Aid groups have said Gaza’s civilian population is facing starvation, and there is concern that the desperation could lead to a breakdown of law and order. Although there have been incidents of looting by armed gangs throughout the war, aid workers say this week's looting marks an escalation, as it was less organized and reached urban areas.

Looting ramps up

The ransacking in Gaza City began Wednesday evening after reports that aid trucks had entered the north from the south, said one aid worker who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to address the media. A security report circulated among aid agencies that night saying a group of armed people had broken into a bakery, driven by rumors that it held food supplies.

The storage was empty and the group then looted a soup kitchen affiliated with an international aid group in the al-Shati camp, the report said.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency said its staff were safely evacuated on Wednesday after thousands of Palestinians breached its Gaza City field office and took medications. Louise Wateridge, a senior emergency officer at UNRWA, called the looting “the direct result of unbearable and prolonged deprivation.”

The ransacking continued through Friday night. Three witnesses told the AP that dozens of armed men stormed into at least two U.N. warehouses, pushing past police and local security guards who were protecting the facilities. The warehouses were nearly empty before the men arrived.

“There were organized gangs,” said Ahmed Abu Awad, a resident of western Gaza City, where some of the looting took place.

Yahya Youssef, another witness, said that for two straight nights on western Gaza City's streets, he saw dozens of men engaged in gunfights with police and security guards who protect U.N. and aid groups’ facilities.

Curfew is enforced

Both men said Israeli drones and aircraft were flying over the area while looting was underway.

An Israeli strike Friday night killed three people — two tasked with guarding the area in western Gaza City and a child — the Hamas-run interior ministry said in a statement. Staff at Shifa hospital, which received the bodies, confirmed the deaths.

The Israeli military said it couldn't comment on the strike without being provided with its exact coordinates.

Gaza's interior ministry said Saturday that over the past two days, it killed six suspects and wounded 13 others over looting activities. The ministry also enforced a curfew starting Friday along some of Gaza City's main streets.

The al-Najjar family, one of Gaza City's most prominent, condemned the pillaging and called for respect and the protection of public and private property. “We categorically reject the chaos that harms the interests of the nation and its citizens," it said in a statement.

In Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza, desperate families pushed and shoved at food distribution sites to reach steaming vats of soup.

“We are eight people. I need to provide them with a bite of food,” said Faten Al-Sabbagh. "I wish I can find even bread, but there is nothing and we are unable to. The prices are high and there are no salaries.”

The top U.N. court on Friday on what Israel must do to ensure that desperately needed humanitarian aid reaches Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Israeli strikes on Gaza continued overnight Friday, leaving at least 17 people dead, including children, in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to hospital records.

Among the dead were 11 people from the same family, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. Another strike killed two newly married couples, one of their families said.

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Magdy reported from Cairo, Egypt. Associated Press reporter Wafaa Shurafa contributed from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip.

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