Looting heavily impacted the distribution of aid in southern Gaza on the first day of a series of humanitarian pauses, according to a new report.
The IDF confirmed over the weekend that, throughout this week, it would halt its operations in several major population centres for up to 10 hours a day to allow aid into the Strip.
While emphasising that “combat operations have not ceased” across the Strip, the army said pauses in its activities would be instituted in Al-Mawasi, Deir al-Balah and Gaza City “every day until further notice”.
The decision to cease fighting in those areas between 10am and 8pm was coordinated with United Nations officials and other international organisations “following discussions regarding the matter,” it stated.
However, per Al-Araby Al-Jadeed - a Qatari-owned paper based in the UK - most of the supplies which came across Gaza's southern border from Egypt yesterday were stolen by unknown groups.
Out of the 130 trucks that crossed over, the report suggests that 73 were targeted before they could reach distribution sites.
Their contents were then reportedly sold on the black market for profit.
A further 20 trucks were reportedly returned to the Rafah Crossing, though the reasons for this were not clear.
Only 37 apparently reached the warehouse operated by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and the Egyptian Committee aid group unscathed.
Israel has long maintained that UN distribution routes are vulnerable to looting, giving its backing instead to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation – a private US firm contracted to provide aid from four sites in the southern part of the Strip.
The IDF has also previously offered to provide security for UN aid convoys, which the global body has rejected, claiming it would be improper to accept protection from either of the belligerents in the Gaza War.
Nonetheless, the military noted that, over the past week alone, more than 250 aid trucks had been unloaded, which it said joined “hundreds of trucks waiting at the crossings to be collected by the UN and international organisations”.
“Additionally, approximately 600 trucks have been distributed by the UN and international organisations,” it said. “The IDF, through COGAT, will continue coordinating with international organisations to collect the contents of hundreds of trucks that have not yet been collected.”
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