Photo by
Majdi Fathi/TPS-IL on 22 May, 2024
UN Suspends Aid Deliveries Through Key Crossing Over Gaza Looting
Jerusalem, 1 December, 2024 (TPS-IL) -- The United Nations suspended humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing on Sunday over Palestinian looting.
“Yesterday, we tried to bring in a few food trucks on the same route. They were all taken,” tweeted Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency, which supports Palestinian refugees.
“The road out of this crossing has not been safe for months. On 16 November, a large convoy of aid trucks was stolen by armed gangs.”
Lazzarini did not indicate who was responsible for the looting.
Since mid-November, Hamas and criminal gangs associated with the terror group have hijacked 85% of all the trucks entering the Strip carrying food, water, medicine and other humanitarian items. The Press Service of Israel has learned that Hamas has granted distribution lines to these groups to ensure that humanitarian aid exclusively reaches Hamas. In return, these gangs receive money, food and vouchers. Hamas also pays these gangs $10,000 a month to maintain checkpoints.
Meanwhile, sacks of flour and rice donated by the West are being sold for $700 and $500 respectively while a pack of cigarettes costs $1,500.
In September, Palestinian sources told TPS-IL that Hamas was charging $800 for donated tents.
Prof. Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies and a senior fellow at the Misgav Institute for National Security told TPS-IL in November that the Israeli military was “the only body in the world that can secure aid delivery to Palestinians in Gaza. But to do this, Israel needs military control of the entire Gaza Strip — something the UN strongly opposes.”
At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 97 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.
