Egypt Daily News – Eyewitnesses and aid groups in Gaza have reported an increase in looting activities in the area, while human rights groups have warned against using starvation as a “weapon of war.” Local residents and relief workers have reported an uptick in looting of supply warehouses in northern Gaza, as the situation continues to deteriorate after more than two months of the Israeli blockade preventing the entry of food and medical aid.
Witnesses, relief organizations, and internal communications between security personnel working with humanitarian groups informed the media that both armed and unarmed individuals forcibly entered warehouses, bakeries, and shops since Wednesday.
The blockade has remained in place since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ended the latest ceasefire with Hamas in March. As a result, the devastated strip, home to over two million people, has sunk into its largest humanitarian crisis since the war began about 19 months ago.
Israeli authorities claim the restrictions and military pressure are aimed at forcing Hamas to release the 59 hostages believed to still be in captivity—24 of whom are presumed dead—and dismantling the infrastructure of Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights previously stated that depriving civilians of food as a wartime tactic amounts to a war crime.
Relief agencies have warned that civilians in Gaza are now on the brink of famine. There is growing concern that looting in search of food and medicine is becoming widespread.
The latest wave of looting began on Wednesday evening in Gaza City, after reports emerged that humanitarian aid trucks had arrived in the northern part of the strip, coming from the southern regions. A relief worker reported that armed individuals targeted a bakery after rumors spread that it contained food stocks.
When it was revealed to be empty, the looters moved to a soup kitchen run by an international relief agency at the Beach Refugee Camp, according to an internal security update circulated that evening.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) reported that its staff withdrew safely on Wednesday after thousands of people stormed its office in Gaza City and seized medical supplies. Louise Watridge, a senior emergency official at UNRWA, described the looting as “a direct result of the ongoing deprivation, which has become intolerable.”
Looting continued until Friday night. According to three witnesses, dozens of armed men stormed two UN-run warehouses, overpowering local police and guards assigned to protect them. The warehouses had already been largely depleted before these invasions.
Ahmad Abu Awad, a resident of West Gaza, where some of the looting occurred, said, “There were organized gangs.”
Another resident, Yahya Youssef, said he witnessed two consecutive nights of armed clashes between thieves and security forces in the streets of West Gaza, near buildings used by the United Nations and relief organizations. The desperation led to the deaths of at least 17 Palestinians in Israeli night raids.
Israeli airstrikes on Khan Yunis in southern Gaza overnight killed at least 17 Palestinians, according to local hospital records.
Al-Nasser Hospital confirmed that one airstrike targeted a home within a refugee camp in the city, killing 11 members of one family. The hospital reported that among the victims were three women and three children, including two brothers, one aged one year and the other only one month old.
Another airstrike hit a house in the Bait al-Samin area of Khan Yunis. The hospital added that two other people were reported dead in a separate strike on another house in the city. The escalating situation is pushing Gaza’s society toward a total collapse. While looting has occurred during the war, these incidents this week represent a significant shift, according to relief organizations—becoming more chaotic and spreading into urban centers
