An Israeli strike hit a street in central Gaza on Thursday, where witnesses said a crowd of people was getting bags of flour from a Palestinian police unit. The bags distributed had been confiscated from gangs looting aid convoys. Hospital officials said 18 people were killed.
The strike was the latest violence surrounding the distribution of food to Gaza’s population, which has been thrown into turmoil over the past month.
After blocking all food for two-and-a-half months, Israel has allowed only a trickle of supplies into the territory since mid-May.
The strike in the central town of Deir al-Balah on Thursday appeared to target members of Sahm, a security unit tasked with stopping looters and cracking down on merchants who sell stolen aid at high prices. The unit is part of Gaza’s Hamas-led Interior Ministry but includes members of other factions.
Witnesses said the Sahm unit was distributing bags of flour and other goods confiscated from looters and corrupt merchants, drawing a crowd when the strike hit.
Gaza aid plan makes a faltering start as Israeli air strikes kill dozens of Palestinians
Video of the aftermath showed bodies, several torn, of multiple young men in the street with blood splattering on the pavement and walls of buildings.
The dead included a child and at least seven Sahm members, according to the nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where casualties were taken.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel has accused the militant Hamas group of stealing aid and using it to prop up its rule in the enclave. Israeli forces have repeatedly struck Gaza’s police, considering them a branch of Hamas.
An association of Gaza’s influential clans and tribes said on Wednesday they have started an independent effort to guard aid convoys to prevent looting. The National Gathering of Palestinian Clans and Tribes said it helped escort a rare shipment of flour that entered northern Gaza that evening.
It was unclear, however, if the association had coordinated with the UN or Israeli authorities. The World Food Programme did not immediately respond to requests for comment by Associated Press.
“We will no longer allow thieves to steal from the convoys for the merchants and force us to buy them for high prices,” Abu Ahmad al-Gharbawi, a figure involved in the tribal effort, said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz, in a joint statement on Wednesday, accused Hamas of stealing aid that is entering northern Gaza and called on the Israeli military to plan to prevent it. The National Gathering slammed the statement, saying the accusation of theft was aimed at justifying the Israeli military’s “aggressive practices”.
The move by tribes to protect aid convoys brings yet another player into an aid situation that has become fragmented, confused and violent.
Gaza’s more than 2 million Palestinians struggle to feed their families
Throughout the more than 20-month-old war, the UN led the massive aid operation by humanitarian groups providing food, shelter, medicine and other goods to Palestinians even amid the fighting.
The UN and other aid groups say that when significant amounts of supplies are allowed into Gaza, looting and theft dwindle.
Israel, however, seeks to replace the UN-led system, saying Hamas has been siphoning off large amounts of supplies from it, a claim the UN and other aid groups deny.
Israel has backed an American private contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has started distributing food boxes at four locations, mainly in the far south of Gaza, for the past month.
Thousands of Palestinians walk for hours to reach the hubs, moving through Israeli military zones where witnesses said Israeli troops regularly open fire with heavy barrages. Health officials said hundreds of people have been killed and wounded. The Israeli military says it has only fired warning shots.
Israel has allowed a smaller number of aid trucks into Gaza for UN distribution. The World Health Organization said on Thursday it had been able to deliver its first medical shipment into Gaza since March 2, with nine trucks bringing blood, plasma and other supplies to Nasser Hospital, the biggest hospital still functioning in southern Gaza.
In Gaza City, large crowds gathered on Thursday at an aid distribution point to receive bags of flour from the convoy that arrived the previous evening, according to photos taken by a cameraman collaborating with Associated Press.
Separately, Israeli strikes overnight and early on Thursday killed at least 28 people across Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. More than 20 dead arrived at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, while the bodies of eight others were taken to Nasser Hospital in the south.
