Nearly a hundred aid trucks looted in Gaza, as UN warns of ‘collapse of law and order’

Nearly one hundred aid trucks were looted in southern Gaza on Saturday in what the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has described as “one of the worst” incidents of its kind.

Nearly one hundred aid trucks were looted in southern Gaza on Saturday in what UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, has described as “one of the worst” incidents of its kind. Of the 109 trucks carrying food supplies for UNRWA and the World Food Programme from the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, 97 trucks were “lost” in the looting, UNRWA told CNN in a statement Monday. Drivers were forced to unload trucks at gun point, aid workers were injured, and vehicles were damaged extensively, it said. The Israeli military reportedly told the convoy, initially scheduled for Sunday, to “depart at short notice via an alternate, unfamiliar route (on Saturday),” according to UNRWA. The UN agency did not identify the perpetrators of the looting, but blamed the “collapse of law and order” and the “approach of the Israeli authorities” for creating a “perilous environment.” It said the challenges involved in delivering aid to Gaza had become “increasingly insurmountable,” with “trucks frequently delayed at various holding points, often looted, and subjected to escalating attacks.”