How was a UN aid convoy robbed near Israeli military positions?
Al Jazeera
Israeli and US media have reported aid robberies taking place within sight of Israeli military positions
The looting of 97 trucks of a UN aid convoy in sight of Israeli military installations at the Karem Abu Salem crossing (Kerem Shalom for Israelis) has exacerbated the suffering of the blockaded Gaza Strip, already in an acute humanitarian crisis.
The 109-truck convoy of aid shipments from several UN agencies was intercepted by armed men on Saturday night who forced the drivers to unload cargo at gunpoint, injured aid workers and damaged the vehicles, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said.
UNRWA did not identify the perpetrators, only saying the cause was the “total breakdown of civil order” among a population that the Israeli authorities are, according to the agency, responsible for ensuring receives enough aid to meet its basic needs.
The television channel, Al-Aqsa, reported that Hamas’s Interior Ministry sources in Gaza had confirmed more than 20 of the gang members suspected of carrying out the robbery had been killed by Hamas security forces acting in coordination with tribal committees.
Anyone caught taking part in similar looting would be treated with “an iron fist”, it said.
