Israeli army promotes humanitarian looting in Gaza, accuse 29 NGOs

Photo: Eyad Baba Agence France-Presse The full moon rises as people walk on a road in al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November 15, 2024.

Agence France-Presse in Paris

Published at 1:54 p.m.

• Middle East

The Israeli army is encouraging the looting of humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, in particular by targeting Palestinian police forces who are trying to combat it, 29 NGOs accused Friday in a joint report.

“Looting is a recurring problem, a consequence of Israel's targeting of the remaining police forces in Gaza, the shortage of essential goods, the lack of roads and the closure of most crossing points, and the resulting despair of the population in these disastrous conditions,” point out these NGOs, including Médecins du Monde, Oxfam and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

The Israeli army is also “failing” to “prevent the looting of aid trucks and armed gangs from extorting protection money from aid organizations,” the NGOs continue, citing in particular an article in the left-wing Israeli daily Haaretz, published Monday and headlined “Israeli army allows Gaza gangs to loot aid trucks, extort protection fees from drivers.”

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In their report, the NGOs also state that “in some cases,” while Palestinian police “attempted to take action against the looters, they were attacked by Israeli troops.”

“Many incidents take place in the vicinity of or in full view of Israeli forces, without their intervention, even when truckers ask for aid.”

In the same report, the 29 NGOs denounce the reduction “to a historically low level” of humanitarian aid authorized by Israel in the Gaza Strip.

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Aggravated situation

According to these, an average of 37 humanitarian trucks entered the Palestinian territory each day in October and 69 daily the first week of November, compared to 500 before October 7, 2023, the date of the start of the war triggered by the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel.

Between October 10 and November 13, “Israeli strikes killed at least 20 humanitarian workers […] working mostly for Palestinian organizations,” the 29 NGOs deplore.

“These employees were killed at home, in displacement camps or while distributing aid. »

On October 13, the United States again called on Israeli authorities to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, or risk seeing American military aid restricted, they point out.

“Not only has Israel failed to meet American criteria,” but its army has “at the same time taken measures that have significantly worsened the situation on the ground,” particularly in northern Gaza, the report accuses.

The situation is “even more dire than it was a month ago,” eight NGOs, including Save the Children, Care and Mercy Corps, recently pointed out in another press release.

On Thursday, however, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was “fully determined to facilitate the continued delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza” and to “increase it,” in particular “by opening new routes and crossing points, such as the one at Kissoufim opened this week, to ensure that essential aid reaches the people of Gaza.”