Video shows desperate Palestinians raiding UN aid truck amid humanitarian crisis in Gaza

Gazans have been seen stopping aid trucks and immediately eating what they find
Jordan King18 December 2023

Palestinians were seen raiding an aid truck for food, after half of Gaza’s population was classed as starving by the United Nations.

Footage from Sunday shows dozens chasing a truck before it is forced to stop as groups climb aboard.

They pull boxes of supplies off the vehicle, including a case of bottled water, and carry off as much as they can.

Several other trucks have seen similar scenes after they drove in through the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

Some 120 trucks entered via Rafah along with six trucks carrying fuel or cooking gas, said Wael Abu Omar, Palestinian Crossings Authority spokesman.

On Thursday, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said that crowds of hungry people were stopping its aid trucks and immediately eating what they found.

“This is how desperate and hungry they are Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said.

Israel-conflict-Gaza-PALESTINIAN-ISRAEL-CONFLICT-GAZA
Palestinians cook falafel in Rafah on Monday
AFP via Getty Images

The UN World Food Programme has said half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million is starving as Israel's military assault on the southern part of the enclave expands and people are cut off from supplies.

Mr Lazzarini went on: "Hunger has now emerged over the last few weeks and we meet more and more people who haven't eaten for one two or three days," he added.

"Our operating environment becomes more and more difficult. And the only way at this stage, in the absence of a ceasefire, to address it and to reverse this tension is to bring assistance at scale."

Aid deliveries crossing into Gaza via the Egyptian border are only a fraction of pre-conflict levels despite the surge in needs.

Israel said aid passed directly from Israel into Gaza for the first time on Sunday, with 79 trucks entering from Kerem Shalom - 500 trucks entered daily before the war.

The country faced fresh calls for a ceasefire from some of its closest European allies on Sunday.

It comes after a series of shootings, including the mistaken killing of three Israeli hostages, fueled global concerns about the conduct of the 10-week-old war in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel “will continue to fight until the end,” with the goal of eliminating Hamas, which triggered the current fighting with its October 7 attack.

The militant group killed an estimated 1,200 people that day, mostly civilians, and captured scores of hostages.

Hamas has said no more hostages will be released until the war ends, and that in exchange it will demand the release of large numbers of Palestinian prisoners, including high-profile militants.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in