Gaza aid trucks rushed by desperate and hungry crowds, WFP says

Crowds of civilians have rushed aid trucks in Gaza, the World Food Programme has said, as hunger and desperation create chaotic scenes.

The humanitarian organisation said it had brought 77 trucks loaded with flour into Gaza overnight and early on Saturday.

“All trucks were stopped along the way, with food taken mainly by hungry people trying to feed their families,” WFP said.

Due to a “very high” chance convoys would not reach their warehouse, a decision was taken to let people take aid in the event of crowds, WFP spokeswoman Abeer Etefa told the BBC.

Israel eased an 11-week aid blockade on 19 May, but the UN says the amount sent in the last week amounts to just over 10% of people’s needs.

The crowds on Saturday were civilians who had received word that food was coming, “the desperate ones who cannot wait to get to distribution points”, Ms Etefa said.

WFP had chosen aid delivery routes “that are closer to the populations and safer, and away from the gangs”.

Workers instructed people to take only one bag of flour each, but were not able to control who took what as intended.

“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, starving people will not let a food truck pass,” the WFP added.

A UN-backed assessment has said Gaza’s entire population is at “critical risk” of famine, with Ms Efeta saying two million people are in “desperate need” of food.

After the blockade partially lifted, WFP has been able to distribute trucks, but “not at the scale that we would like to and not at the quantities that should get there so that we can calm the situation and control the chaos”, she said.

Israel said it had imposed the blockade on Gaza to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

The UN Palestinian relief agency chief said the 900 trucks sent in to Gaza over the past week were “just over 10% of the daily needs of people”.

“The aid that’s being sent now makes a mockery to the mass tragedy unfolding under our watch,” Philippe Lazzarini said on X.

Israeli military agency Cogat has accused the UN of not distributing aid already inside Gaza, with Israel’s foreign ministry saying hundreds of trucks are waiting.

“More aid would actually get to the people if you would collect the aid waiting for you by the crossings,” Cogat said to the UN on X on Friday.

The UN humanitarian office’s regional head, Jonathan Whittall, said the agency faced challenges in distributing aid because of escalating insecurity along routes, being given “inappropriate routes”, “long delays” in receiving approvals to move, and “desperate crowds” along the way.

Separately, a new US and Israel-backed organisation has also been distributing food at designated sites across Gaza. Israel set up the plan after accusing Hamas of stealing aid, which the group denies.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it distributed two million meals this week, which the BBC has not been able to independently verify.

There were chaotic scenes at those distribution sites this week. The UN has refused to work with the operation, saying it contradicts humanitarian principles.

Meanwhile, Israeli air strikes continue. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Saturday that over the past day, it had struck “dozens of terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip”.

Sixty people were killed in Israeli military operations over the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said.

The statistics do not include the North Gaza Governorate, where the last hospital closed on Thursday after the Israeli military ordered its evacuation.

Christos Georgalas, a Greek surgeon who until 21 May worked at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, told the BBC his patients were mainly children, usually with shrapnel injuries.

“Children were the main victims in terms of trauma and malnutrition,” he said on Friday.

Malnutrition slows down the healing process and increases the risk of infections because wounds remain open longer, he explained.

He and hospital staff eat only rice for lunch and dinner, which he said made them lucky compared to others. One of his colleagues told him he had lost 26 kilos (57 pounds) over recent months.

Georgalas said a lot of doctors had not been paid for a year. Some live in tents, commuting without protection to work, or have to evacuate at short notice.

“They are worried for their relatives and lives, they are starved, despite that they continue,” he said.

Since he left Gaza, his colleague told him the ICU had been “constantly full” and “overwhelmed”, with doctors having to ration care because so many patients need intubation.

Meanwhile, four Arab countries that had planned a landmark visit to the West Bank this weekend condemned Israel’s decision to block the trip.

The delegation that was planning to meet the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah included the foreign ministers of Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

An Israeli official said the intended meeting was meant to discuss promoting a Palestinian state, which the current Israeli government rejects.

Saudi Arabia and France are co-hosting an international conference next month meant to resurrect the two-state solution as an answer to the Gaza war.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 54,381 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 4,117 since Israel resumed its offensive on 18 March, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.