Witnesses and aid groups report a surge in looting in Gaza

TEL AVIV, Israel — Armed groups and others have looted warehouses of supplies in northern Gaza.

Unidentified people, both armed and unarmed, have been looting U.N. and aid groups’ warehouses, as well as bakeries and shops since Wednesday, according to witnesses and organizations in Gaza.

Israel has blocked humanitarian aid from entering Gaza since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ended the latest ceasefire with Hamas in March.

Israel has said the blockade and its renewed military campaign are intended to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages it still holds, most of them thought to be dead, and to disarm the Palestinian terrorist group.

Although there have been incidents of looting by armed gangs throughout the war, aid workers say last week’s looting marks an escalation.

The ransacking in Gaza City began Wednesday evening after reports that aid trucks had entered the north from the south, said one aid worker who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to address the media. A security report circulated among aid agencies that night saying a group of armed people had broken into a bakery, driven by rumors that it held food supplies.

The storage was empty and the group then looted a soup kitchen affiliated with an international aid group in the al-Shati camp, the report said.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency said its staff were safely evacuated on Wednesday after thousands of Palestinians breached its Gaza City field office and took medications.

The ransacking continued through Friday night. Three witnesses told the AP that dozens of armed men stormed into at least two U.N. warehouses, pushing past police and local security guards who were protecting the facilities.

“There were organized gangs,” said Ahmed Abu Awad, a resident of western Gaza City, where some of the looting took place.

Yahya Youssef, another witness, said that for two straight nights on western Gaza City’s streets, he saw dozens of men engaged in gunfights with police and security guards who protect U.N. and aid groups’ facilities.

Gaza’s interior ministry said Saturday that over the past two days, it killed six suspects and wounded 13 others over looting activities. The ministry also enforced a curfew starting Friday along some of Gaza City’s main streets.

The al-Najjar family, one of Gaza City’s most prominent, condemned the pillaging and called for respect and the protection of public and private property. “We categorically reject the chaos that harms the interests of the nation and its citizens,” it said in a statement.