Gangs looting Gaza aid operate in areas under Israeli control, humanitarian groups say

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

WP EXCLUSIVE
Gangs looting Gaza aid operate in areas under Israeli control, humanitarian groups say

A U.N. memo obtained by The Post concluded that gangs “may be benefiting from a passive if not active benevolence” or “protection” from Israel’s military.

By Claire Parker, Loveday Morris, Hajar Harb, Miriam Berger and Hazem Balousha
November 18, 2024 at 4:25 p.m. EST

CAIRO — As Gaza’s hunger crisis worsens, organized gangs are stealing much of the aid Israel allows into the enclave, operating freely in areas controlled by the Israeli military, according to aid group officials, humanitarian workers, transport companies and witnesses.

Officials said criminal looting has become the greatest impediment to distributing aid in the southern half of Gaza, home to the vast majority of displaced Palestinians. Armed bands of men have killed, beaten and kidnapped aid truck drivers in the area around Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing, the main entry point into Gaza’s south, aid workers and transport companies said.

The thieves, who have run cigarette-smuggling operations throughout this year but are now also stealing food and other supplies, are tied to local crime families, residents say. The gangs are described by observers as rivals of Hamas and, in some cases, they have been targeted by remnants of Hamas’s security forces in other parts of the enclave.

An internal United Nations memo obtained by The Washington Post concluded last month that the gangs “may be benefiting from a passive if not active benevolence” or “protection” from the Israel Defense Forces. One gang leader, the memo said, established a “military like compound” in an area “restricted, controlled and patrolled by the IDF.”

{snip}

Morris reported from Berlin, Harb from London, Berger from Jaffa, Israel, and Balousha from Toronto. Lior Soroka in Tel Aviv and Meg Kelly in Washington contributed to this report.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/11/18/gaza-looting-aid-convoys-israel-famine/

[Igel]

1. I need an evidence-based claim that this is new.

And not an on-going practice that has continued under what's assumed to be IDF control.

I'd also really like some sort of precedent-based reasoning that says if the IDF intervened and killed the members of said gangs this wouldn't be another story: "The IDF killed 23 Palestinians overnight as part of their on-going occupation of Gaza in the nearly 14-month assault on Palestinians. The IDF claimed it was attacking gang members 'looting' aid, a racially charged term, but could not provide evidence of their claim."

[Richard D]

4. We already know . . .

. . . that the UN is utterly and totally truthful at all times, right? um, right? hahahaha.

[jg10003]

2. Palestinian gangs steal food from other Palestinians and the Jews get blamed.

[Richard D]

3. If a tree falls in a forest . . .

. . . it's always the Jew's fault!

[moniss]

5. The IDF has stood by and allowed

people from the radical right/settler movement to blockade and attack aid trucks moving through Israel for a very long time. Over the last several days there was an interview on PBS with the head of an NGO that works to deliver aid into Gaza and she said that from the beginning of the 30 day window to increase aid through to the current time the IDF rejections for authorization to move aid into northern Gaza had doubled.