The collapse in aid deliveries comes amid warnings that the 2.2 million inhabitants of Gaza are on the brink of famine. The situation is most precarious in the north.
People gather around the carcass of a Palestinian police vehicle that was reportedly destroyed in Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 10. JERUSALEM — The volume of aid delivered to Gaza has collapsed in recent weeks as Israeli airstrikes have targeted police officers who guard the convoys, U.N. officials say, exposing them to looting by criminal gangs and desperate civilians.
Three police officers were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Rafah on Feb. 10, according to Rafah governorate police and eyewitnesses, as they were driving to monitor the distribution of food aid in Tal al-Sultan, west of Rafah.Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency , said that eight other Palestinian police officers were killed during the previous week. The Washington Post could not independently confirm the figures.
“Many of these trucks, before they even get 200 meters, are stopped by cars and then attacked and looted,” McGoldrick said. “We’re lucky to get some of the material to warehouses.” Getting the food from there to the north is even more difficult.Convoys run the risk of being overrun on the journey, he added, describing one driver he met on a trip to Gaza this month who had lost his voice from screaming at looters: “This is for the people of Gaza.
“If there’s a disruption on that side, or there’s a disruption on the other side where we are because of insecurity, the result’s the same: We don’t get stuff out of the door,” McGoldrick said. “The situation has descended into severe chaos,” Marwan said, adding that armed men threaten anyone carrying food. “I’ve heard of shootings by bandits,” she said. A bag of flour that used to cost $8 now goes for about $275.
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