Gaza: Looting increases as aid operations near closure

 Friday, November 22, 2024

Islamabad (news international / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Nov, 2024 ) Humanitarian aid is about to be cut off across Gaza, where there is a severe shortage of flour and fuel to run ovens, while incidents of looting of aid convoys at gunpoint are increasing.

The United Nations Relief and Works Coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territories, Mohammed Hadi, has said that the survival of more than two million Gazans is at risk due to severe shortages of food and other basic necessities.

Israeli authorities have banned the entry of all types of commercial goods into Gaza. Flour and fuel have not reached the ovens for six weeks, which are now starting to close.

Lack of order and looting

Muhammad Hadi has said that the lack of access to aid has caused frustration among the people and incidents of looting of aid convoys have become common due to the lack of order.

In these circumstances, it has become difficult for aid agencies to bring goods from border areas.

There have been 75 incidents of looting of UN aid trucks this year, including 15 since November 4, while UN warehouses have been looted 34 times. Last week, a driver in an aid convoy was shot in the head and remains in hospital with injuries.

Last Saturday, 98 trucks were looted and damaged in a single attack.

They say that while aid agencies are determined to remain in Gaza and provide assistance to people, their capacity to operate is rapidly diminishing in the current circumstances. It is essential to restore order to ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian aid to people.

Violence in the West Bank

In the occupied West Bank, UN aid agencies, the Palestinian Authority and other partners are assessing the needs of Palestinians affected by the two-day Israeli military operation in the city of Jenin and the refugee camp it houses.

The operation damaged several homes and water and sewage systems, and there were reports of power outages in some areas.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters at a routine press briefing in New York that children in the West Bank, like in Gaza, are bearing the brunt of the war. An average of four Palestinian children have been killed in the West Bank every week since October 7 last year, three times the number in the nine months before the war.

The spokesman said that settler violence in the West Bank has displaced more than 1,700 Palestinians, half of whom are children.

Hunger and displacement in Lebanon

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have warned that hunger is spreading in war-torn Lebanon. The ongoing fighting between the Israeli army and Hezbollah has disrupted the supply of commercial goods in the country and increased food insecurity, affecting more than 1.2 million people.

The spokesman said that while about a quarter of Lebanon's population was already facing food shortages, the situation has worsened, with food prices also rising.

UN aid agencies and their partners have delivered food to more than 65,000 people in the southern regions and Baalbek districts since September. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 880,000 people are currently displaced in Lebanon.