Theft of aid trucks sends prices soaring in central Gaza

The the theft by armed men of nearly 100 trucks loaded with food and other humanitarian aid over the weekend sent prices soaring and caused shortages in central Gaza where hundreds of thousands are crammed into squalid tent camps.

An even more severe hunger crisis is underway in the north, where Israel has been waging a weekslong offensive that has killed hundreds of people and driven tens of thousands from their homes. Experts say a famine might already have set in there.

On Monday, a crowd of people waited outside a shuttered bakery in the central city of Deir al-Balah. A woman who had been displaced from Gaza City, identifying herself as Umm Shadi, said the price of flour had climbed to 400 shekels (over $100) a bag, if it can even be found.

Nora Muhanna, another woman displaced from Gaza City, said she was leaving empty-handed after waiting five hours for a bag of bread for her children. “From the beginning, there are no goods, and even if they are available, there is no money,” she said.

The United Nations said armed men stole food and other aid from 98 trucks over the weekend, the largest single incident of its kind since the start of the war. It did not say who was behind the theft.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the convoy of 109 trucks was instructed by the Israeli military to take an “alternative, unfamiliar route” after the aid was brought in through the Kerem Shalom crossing, and that the trucks were stolen near the crossing itself.

Israel has long accused Hamas of stealing aid, allegations denied by the militant group.

Al-Aqsa TV, a media outlet operated by the militants, said Hamas-run security forces in Gaza had launched an operation against looters, killing 20 of them.

Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official based in Qatar, said the looters were young men from Bedouin tribes in the area, emphasizing that they do not necessarily represent the tribes. He said they operate east of Rafah near Israeli military positions.

The Hamas-run government had a police force of tens of thousands that maintained a high degree of public security before the war, but they have vanished from the streets in many areas after being targeted by Israeli strikes. Hamas says it has taken measures to prevent both looting and price-gouging in local markets.

Hamas ignited the war in Gaza when its fighters stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed over 43,800 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities, who do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their toll. The war has left much of the territory in ruins and forced around 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million to flee, often multiple times.