Thousands of Gaza Strip residents broke into warehouses and distribution centers of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), looting flour and basic necessities. The raid was carried out during the day, the UN agency confirmed.
Source. This was reported by Reuters with reference to the agency's statement.
"This is a worrying sign that after three weeks of war and a severe blockade of Gaza, public order is beginning to break down," said Thomas White, UNRWA's Gaza director.
"Food stocks are running low and humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip by truck from Egypt is insufficient," White said.
On Thursday, the head of the UN Humanitarian Service Martin Griffiths said that over the past week, aid has been "barely trickling in" to Gaza.
On Saturday, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that "obstacles created by Israel" prevented the rapid delivery of aid through the Rafah crossing.
UNRWA emphasized that "no fuel was stolen". The agency did not specify whether the security of other warehouses in Gaza would be strengthened or whether additional deliveries were expected.
A senior official of the UN World Food Program, Abir Etefa, said that raids on several aid distribution centers in Gaza on Saturday were to be expected as people were in dire straits.
In an interview with the BBC, she suggested that Saturday's shutdown of telephones and the Internet in the enclave may have contributed to looting in warehouses and distribution centers. According to her, the UN was forced to suspend food distribution because it could not contact the teams on the ground.
"Today we are resuming our work as communication is gradually being restored," she added.
So far, more than 80 trucks with humanitarian aid have been allowed into Gaza.
Israel has refused to allow fuel to enter Gaza because it believes that Hamas is using it for military purposes, including running diesel generators that provide lighting and ventilation in the militant group's network of tunnels dug under Gaza, which the army estimates stretch for many hundreds of kilometers.