Gaza authorities say deadly anti-looting operation followed aid convoy hijacking

# Gaza authorities say deadly anti-looting operation followed aid convoy hijacking

Gaza’s Hamas-run interior ministry says more than 20 people were killed in a security operation after armed looters hijacked an aid convoy carrying desperately needed food into the territory.

The incident began when gunmen attacked about 100 trucks bringing relief supplies into Gaza, in what was described as one of the biggest such thefts during the war. The convoy had been transporting food from UN agencies, including UNRWA and the World Food Programme, when it was looted after entering the enclave.

The ministry said the deaths occurred in an operation carried out by security forces working with tribal committees. It described the campaign as a response to theft that had “severely affected society” and worsened signs of famine in southern Gaza. An interior ministry source said the 20 deaths were linked to the Saturday looting of the convoy.

UN officials said 98 of the 109 trucks in the convoy were looted. Local community leaders said people in central Gaza fought back against the attackers and recovered some of the stolen trucks, which were later returned to the WFP. The episode left aid workers warning that access routes into Gaza were becoming increasingly dangerous and unreliable.

The consequences were immediate. A spokesperson for the Internally Displaced Civilians Association in Deir al-Balah said the looting forced two bakeries serving roughly 1 million people in central Gaza to stop producing bread until new supplies arrived. That detail underlined how one convoy can affect basic food access far beyond the people at the scene.

The reporting also described a broader breakdown in civil order. As Gaza’s policing system has collapsed under the pressure of war, armed gangs and local power brokers have gained influence along roads used by aid convoys. Aid officials said they had warned repeatedly that theft was becoming more organized and more dangerous.

The operation and the looting reveal the same emergency from different angles. One side says it is fighting criminal theft; the other says the route itself was unsafe and that access problems were made worse by Israeli decisions. Either way, the result was more hunger, less trust and a deeper strain on an already shattered aid system.

For civilians waiting on food deliveries, the episode showed how fragile relief has become. When aid does arrive, it now has to pass not only through war and bureaucracy, but through a landscape where armed groups can seize it before it reaches the people it was meant to feed.