A large convoy of trucks carrying aid was “violently looted” in the Gaza Strip over the weekend and its drivers forced at gunpoint to unload supplies, the main UN agency that helps Palestinians said on Monday, calling it one of the worst such incidents of the war.
The agency, known as UNRWA, said on Monday that the convoy of 109 trucks had been driving from the Kerem Shalom border crossing in southern Gaza when it was looted on Saturday. Nearly 100 of the trucks were lost, members of the convoy suffered unspecified injuries and other vehicles sustained extensive damage, the agency said.
The convoy — carrying food supplies from UNRWA and the UN World Food Programme — had been scheduled to enter Gaza on Sunday, UNRWA said, but the Israeli military instructed it to leave a day earlier “at short notice via an alternate, unfamiliar route”.
The agency said that the incident highlighted the “challenges of bringing aid into southern and central Gaza” despite months of attempts by aid agencies to help it arrive safely.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the episode. It was not clear who was responsible for the looting. In the past, Israel has accused Hamas militants of robbing aid convoys to supply their own forces.
New York Times News Service
