Aid officials and witnesses have described the chaotic and violent moments when a huge convoy carrying enough flour to bake bread for two-thirds of the population of Gaza for a week was looted this month.
The officials made clear the attack was undertaken by groups of criminals, not civilians who were now being deprived of food in a territory close to famine.
The attack on 17 November was the most serious after months of escalating violence directed at aid convoys in Gaza, where experts have warned of imminent famine. The UN estimates a third or more of its aid entering Gaza is looted.
One official said: “It is organised crime on a massive scale. They are taking supplies paid for by member states. It is another horrendous consequence of the war and it is an utter disgrace that things have been allowed to get this bad.”
Aid officials said the attack on the convoy had very serious consequences. “Pick up of supplies and fuel has stopped completely. For fuel it is a mess, as it means we are more or less grounded until the situation is fixed,” one said on Wednesday.
Another said the convoy had been bringing in enough flour to run bakeries for 1.5 million people in central and southern Gaza for about seven days. After the attack, the World Food Programme (WFP) emptied its warehouses, distributing enough flour for two days, an official said. A small convoy last week managed to bring in enough for a further 72 hours.
“It’s hand to mouth. There’s absolutely nothing in reserve. If we run out, the bakeries shut and a million and a half people go hungry,” he said.
UN agencies say law and order has deteriorated across Gaza since Israel began targeting police officers, who guarded aid convoys, this year. Israel considers police in Gaza, which has been run by Hamas since 2007, an integral part of the militant Islamist organisation.
Hundreds of convicted criminals escaped early in the conflict after prisons were bombed or police fled.
Aid agencies say COGAT, the Israeli military agency that deals with humanitarian aid into Gaza, has refused to act effectively against increasingly daring looters. The UN had been assured by the Israeli military that the route of the convoy had been secured, officials said.
“Most of the organised looting has been taking place in a zone the [Israeli military] control. They don’t have troops there, but their [armed drones] are everywhere,” said one humanitarian official.
Another UN aid official in Gaza said he had seen armed looters “within spitting distance of an Israeli tank”.
The 17 November attack came at about 1.30am, shortly after the huge convoy of 120 trucks had been loaded on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom entry point from Israel in the south-east of the territory.
The convoy then set out for UN distribution hubs in Khan Younis, 15km away, and Deir al-Balah, a 25km drive on battered roads. All closer warehouses were destroyed or made inaccessible by Israeli offensives since May.
The timing of the truck’s departure had been set for just before dawn but was changed at the last minute in an attempt to deceive looters. The leading vehicles crossed an area of deserted wasteland where many ambushes have occurred, then turned north on Salahuddin Road, the main artery in Gaza. Attackers allowed the first 10 trucks to pass, but shot out the tyres of those following, blocking the passage of the 97 behind.
Some sources described hundreds of gunmen armed with assault rifles attacking in almost total darkness, firing in the air or towards trucks, beating or threatening drivers, and then forcing to drive their trucks to pre-prepared bases equipped with forklift trucks where they were ordered to unload their cargo.
Aid officials said the attack marked a “huge step change” in scale and ambition. Gangs have made huge sums in recent months through stealing and stockpiling aid. The price of basics in Gaza has soared as deliveries have declined sharply. Every truck looted on 17 November carried more than 400 desperately needed bags of wheat flour, each worth $100 on markets in Gaza.
Efforts to set up alternative routes to avoid the stretches of road most vulnerable to looting have not been successful. The first convoys that tried to use a more direct route to Deir al-Balah from the newly opened Kissufim entry point was attacked on 13 November, with 14 out of 20 trucks looted. Four drivers were hospitalised, three with gunshot wounds.
The main organiser of the looters has been named in internal UN notes seen by the Guardian as Yasser Abu Shabab, a well-known tribal leader and businessman. He has since threatened to kill any driver working on aid convoys, UN sources said. Other officials said it was unclear who was behind the attack and that even major leaders among the looters were unable to control smaller gangs.
Israeli officials claim most looting is by Hamas, which has ruled in Gaza since 2007. “I’m sorry, it’s not looters. It’s Hamas people … They are working in a very systematic way,” said Avi Dichter, the minister for food security and a member of Israel’s security cabinet. The Israeli military says it has targeted looters in Gaza.
COGAT says it does all it can to ensure that enough aid enters Gaza and that Israel does not prevent the entry of humanitarian aid, which had already fallen to an all-time low in October. COGAT acknowledged but did not respond to the Guardian’s questions about looting.
This year Hamas set up “popular resistance committees” made up of Hamas fighters, allied armed groups and local clans to enforce some kind of order in swaths of Gaza that are in effect ungoverned.
A day after the convoy was attacked, the Hamas-run interior ministry said 20 people had been killed in an operation to reclaim the looted supplies and said the operation was the start of a broader campaign to tackle the problem.
A Hamas official said the operation showed that the group continued to govern Gaza. “Hamas as a movement exists … Hamas as a government exists too, not as strong as it used to be, but it exists,” he said.
Over recent months a range of violent actors have emerged in Gaza, including community defence groups and militias linked to clans.
Community leaders said local people had fought back against the looters on Saturday and managed to retrieve some of the stolen trucks, which were then returned to the WFP.
Central Gaza has emerged as a centre of resistance to the armed gangs who operate farther south, with multiple reports of fatal armed clashes between community groups and families based there and the gangs who steal aid before it reaches other parts of the territory. Some such violence has led to vendettas and a series of murders.
Field hospitals in central and southern Gaza have seen multiple cases of injuries sustained in what appear to be punishment attacks on looters by “vigilantes”, two aid officials in Gaza said. These include kneecapping.
Israel’s offensive into Gaza has killed more than 44,000 people, mostly civilians, and left two-thirds of the territory in ruins. Experts have said famine threatens some of its 2.3 million residents, most of whom have been displaced many times. Hamas killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 250 in its attack on 7 October 2023 which triggered the war.
