Gaza civil order ‘starting to break down’ as UN food stores are ransacked
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Palestinians collect bags of dried pulses from a United Nations-run aid supply centre.
PHOTO: AFP
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JERUSALEM – The United Nations warned on Sunday that “civil order” was starting to collapse in the Gaza Strip after thousands of people ransacked its food warehouses.
UNRWA, the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, said wheat, flour and other basic supplies were pillaged at several of its warehouses and distribution centres.
“This is a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege,” said Mr Thomas White, Gaza’s UNRWA chief.
One of the warehouses, located in Deir al-Balah, is where UNRWA stores supplies from the humanitarian convoys crossing into Gaza from Egypt.
Aid supplies to Gaza have been choked
“Supplies on the market are running out while the humanitarian aid coming into the Gaza Strip on trucks from Egypt is insufficient,” UNRWA said, adding that the current system to get humanitarian convoys into Gaza was “geared to fail”.
“The needs of the communities are immense, if only for basic survival, while the aid we receive is meagre and inconsistent.”
UNRWA has said that its ability to help people in Gaza has been completely stretched by air strikes that have killed more than 50 of its staff and restricted the movement of supplies.
Even before the conflict, the organisation had said its mandate was being jeopardised due to a lack of funding.
Established in 1949 following the first Arab-Israeli war, UNRWA provides public services including schools, primary healthcare and humanitarian aid in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. REUTERS, AFP
