Thousands loot aid warehouses in Gaza as Israeli airstrikes continue, UN agency says

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Thousands of people broke into aid warehouses in Gaza to take flour and basic hygiene products, a UN agency said Sunday, in a mark of growing desperation and the breakdown of public order three weeks into the war between Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers.

Tanks and infantry pushed into Gaza over the weekend as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a "second stage" in the war, three weeks after Hamas launched a brutal incursion into Israel. The widening ground offensive came as Israel also pounded the territory from air, land and sea.

Gaza's Health Ministry said the death toll among Palestinians has passed 8,000, with even higher casualties expected on both sides as Israel presses its ground offensive.

The bombardment over the weekend — described by Gaza residents as the most intense of the war — knocked out most communications in the territory late Friday, largely cutting off the besieged enclave's 2.3 million people from the world. Communications were restored to much of Gaza early Sunday.

The Israeli military said Sunday it had struck over 450 militant targets over the past 24 hours, including Hamas command centres, observation posts and anti-tank missile launching positions. It said more ground forces were sent into Gaza overnight.

Thomas White, director for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, in Gaza, said the warehouse break-ins were "a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege on Gaza."

"People are scared, frustrated and desperate," he said.

UNRWA provides basic services to hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza. Its schools across the territory have been transformed into packed shelters housing Palestinians displaced by the conflict. Israel has allowed only a small trickle of aid to enter from Egypt, some of which was stored in one of the warehouses that was broken into, UNRWA said.

Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the agency, said the crowds broke into four facilities on Saturday. She said the warehouses did not contain any fuel, which has been in critically short supply since Israel cut off all shipments after the start of the war.

Residents living near Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, meanwhile said Israeli airstrikes overnight hit near the hospital complex and blocked many roads leading to it. Israel accuses Hamas of having a secret command post beneath the hospital.

Tens of thousands of civilians are sheltering in Shifa, which is also packed with patients wounded in the strikes.

"Reaching the hospital has become increasingly difficult," said Mahmoud al-Sawah, who is sheltering in the Gaza City hospital. "It seems they want to cut off the area."

Another Gaza City resident, Abdallah Sayed, said the Israeli bombing over the past two days was "the most violent and intense" since the war started.