Chaos, gangs, gunfire: Gaza aid fails to reach most needy
After images of malnourished children stoked an international outcry, aid has started to be delivered to the territory once more but on a scale deemed woefully insufficient by international organisations.
Every day, AFP correspondents on the ground see desperate crowds rushing towards food convoys or the sites of aid drops by Arab and European air forces.
On Thursday, in Al-Zawayda in central Gaza, emaciated Palestinians rushed to pallets parachuted from a plane, jostling and tearing packages from each other in a cloud of dust.
'Hunger has driven people to turn on each other. People are fighting each other with knives,' Amir Zaqot, who came seeking aid, told AFP.
To avoid disturbances, World Food Programme (WFP) drivers have been instructed to stop before their intended destination and let people help themselves. But to no avail.
'A truck wheel almost crushed my head, and I was injured retrieving the bag,' sighed a man, carrying a bag of flour on his head, in the Zikim area, in the northern Gaza Strip.
'Truly tragic'
Mohammad Abu Taha went at dawn to a distribution site near Rafah in the south to join the queue and reserve his spot. He said there were already 'thousands waiting, all hungry, for a bag of flour or a little rice and lentils.'
'Suddenly, we heard gunshots..... There was no way to escape. People started running, pushing and shoving each other, children, women, the elderly,' said the 42-year-old. 'The scene was truly tragic: blood everywhere, wounded, dead.'
Nearly 1,400 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip while waiting for aid since May 27, the majority by the Israeli army, the United Nations said on Friday.
The Israeli army denies any targeting, insisting it only fires 'warning shots' when people approach too close to its positions.
International organisations have for months condemned the restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities on aid distribution in Gaza, including refusing to issue border crossing permits, slow customs clearance, limited access points, and imposing dangerous routes.
On Tuesday, in Zikim, the Israeli army 'changed loading plans for WFP, mixing cargo unexpectedly. The convoy was forced to leave early, without proper security,' said a senior UN official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
In the south of Gaza, at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, 'there are two possible routes to reach our warehouses (in central Gaza),' said an NGO official, who also preferred to remain anonymous. 'One is fairly safe, the other is regularly the scene of fighting and looting, and that's the one we're forced to take.'
'Darwinian experiment'
Some of the aid is looted by gangs—who often directly attack warehouses—and diverted to traders who resell it at exorbitant prices, according to several humanitarian sources and experts.
'It becomes this sort of Darwinian social experiment of the survival of the fittest,' said Muhammad Shehada, visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).
'People who are the most starved in the world and do not have the energy must run and chase after a truck and wait for hours and hours in the sun and try to muscle people and compete for a bag of flour,' he said.
Jean Guy Vataux, emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Gaza, added: 'We're in an ultra-capitalist system, where traders and corrupt gangs send kids to risk life and limb at distribution points or during looting. It's become a new profession.'
This food is then resold to 'those who can still afford it' in the markets of Gaza City, where the price of a 25-kilogramme bag of flour can exceed US$400 (RM1,694), he added.
'Never found proof'
Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of looting aid supplied by the UN, which has been delivering the bulk of aid since the start of the war triggered by the militant group's October 2023 attack.
The Israeli authorities have used this accusation to justify the total blockade they imposed on Gaza between March and May, and the subsequent establishment of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private organisation supported by Israel and the United States which has become the main aid distributor, sidelining UN agencies.
However, for more than two million inhabitants of Gaza the GHF has just four distribution points, which the UN describes as a 'death trap'.
'Hamas... has been stealing aid from the Gaza population many times by shooting Palestinians,' said the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.
But according to senior Israeli military officials quoted by the New York Times on July 26, Israel 'never found proof' that the group had 'systematically stolen aid' from the UN.
Weakened by the war with Israel which has seen most of its senior leadership killed, Hamas today is made up of 'basically decentralised autonomous cells' said Shehada.
He said while Hamas militants still hunker down in each Gaza neighbourhood in tunnels or destroyed buildings, they are not visible on the ground 'because Israel has been systematically going after them'.
Aid workers told AFP that during the ceasefire that preceded the March blockade, the Gaza police—which includes many Hamas members—helped secure humanitarian convoys, but that the current power vacuum was fostering insecurity and looting.
'UN agencies and humanitarian organisations have repeatedly called on Israeli authorities to facilitate and protect aid convoys and storage sites in our warehouses across the Gaza Strip,' said Bushra Khalidi, policy lead at Oxfam.
'These calls have largely been ignored,' she added.
'All kinds of criminal activities'
The Israeli army is also accused of having equipped Palestinian criminal networks in its fight against Hamas and of allowing them to plunder aid.
'The real theft of aid since the beginning of the war has been carried out by criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces, and they were allowed to operate in proximity to the Kerem Shalom crossing point into Gaza,' Jonathan Whittall, Palestinian territories chief of the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), told reporters in May.
According to Israeli and Palestinian media reports, an armed group called the Popular Forces, made up of members of a Bedouin tribe led by Yasser Abu Shabab, is operating in the southern region under Israeli control.
The ECFR describes Abu Shabab as leading a 'criminal gang operating in the Rafah area that is widely accused of looting aid trucks'.
The Israeli authorities themselves acknowledged in June that they had armed Palestinian gangs opposed to Hamas, without directly naming the one led by Abu Shabab.
Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center of Tel Aviv University, said many of the gang's members were implicated in 'all kinds of criminal activities, drug smuggling, and things like that'.
'None of this can happen in Gaza without the approval, at least tacit, of the Israeli army,' said a humanitarian worker in Gaza, asking not to be named. — AFP
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Malay Mail
8 hours ago
- Malay Mail
Chaos, gangs, gunfire: Gaza aid fails to reach most needy
PARIS, Aug 4 — The trickle of food aid Israel allows to enter Gaza after nearly 22 months of war is seized by Palestinians risking their lives under fire, looted by gangs or diverted in chaotic circumstances rather than reaching those most in need, UN agencies, aid groups and analysts say. After images of malnourished children stoked an international outcry, aid has started to be delivered to the territory once more but on a scale deemed woefully insufficient by international organisations. Every day, AFP correspondents on the ground see desperate crowds rushing towards food convoys or the sites of aid drops by Arab and European air forces. On Thursday, in Al-Zawayda in central Gaza, emaciated Palestinians rushed to pallets parachuted from a plane, jostling and tearing packages from each other in a cloud of dust. 'Hunger has driven people to turn on each other. People are fighting each other with knives,' Amir Zaqot, who came seeking aid, told AFP. To avoid disturbances, World Food Programme (WFP) drivers have been instructed to stop before their intended destination and let people help themselves. But to no avail. 'A truck wheel almost crushed my head, and I was injured retrieving the bag,' sighed a man, carrying a bag of flour on his head, in the Zikim area, in the northern Gaza Strip. 'Truly tragic' Mohammad Abu Taha went at dawn to a distribution site near Rafah in the south to join the queue and reserve his spot. He said there were already 'thousands waiting, all hungry, for a bag of flour or a little rice and lentils.' 'Suddenly, we heard gunshots..... There was no way to escape. People started running, pushing and shoving each other, children, women, the elderly,' said the 42-year-old. 'The scene was truly tragic: blood everywhere, wounded, dead.' Nearly 1,400 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip while waiting for aid since May 27, the majority by the Israeli army, the United Nations said on Friday. The Israeli army denies any targeting, insisting it only fires 'warning shots' when people approach too close to its positions. International organisations have for months condemned the restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities on aid distribution in Gaza, including refusing to issue border crossing permits, slow customs clearance, limited access points, and imposing dangerous routes. On Tuesday, in Zikim, the Israeli army 'changed loading plans for WFP, mixing cargo unexpectedly. The convoy was forced to leave early, without proper security,' said a senior UN official who spoke on condition of anonymity. In the south of Gaza, at the Kerem Shalom border crossing, 'there are two possible routes to reach our warehouses (in central Gaza),' said an NGO official, who also preferred to remain anonymous. 'One is fairly safe, the other is regularly the scene of fighting and looting, and that's the one we're forced to take.' 'Darwinian experiment' Some of the aid is looted by gangs—who often directly attack warehouses—and diverted to traders who resell it at exorbitant prices, according to several humanitarian sources and experts. 'It becomes this sort of Darwinian social experiment of the survival of the fittest,' said Muhammad Shehada, visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR). 'People who are the most starved in the world and do not have the energy must run and chase after a truck and wait for hours and hours in the sun and try to muscle people and compete for a bag of flour,' he said. Jean Guy Vataux, emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Gaza, added: 'We're in an ultra-capitalist system, where traders and corrupt gangs send kids to risk life and limb at distribution points or during looting. It's become a new profession.' This food is then resold to 'those who can still afford it' in the markets of Gaza City, where the price of a 25-kilogramme bag of flour can exceed US$400 (RM1,694), he added. 'Never found proof' Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of looting aid supplied by the UN, which has been delivering the bulk of aid since the start of the war triggered by the militant group's October 2023 attack. The Israeli authorities have used this accusation to justify the total blockade they imposed on Gaza between March and May, and the subsequent establishment of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private organisation supported by Israel and the United States which has become the main aid distributor, sidelining UN agencies. However, for more than two million inhabitants of Gaza the GHF has just four distribution points, which the UN describes as a 'death trap'. 'Hamas... has been stealing aid from the Gaza population many times by shooting Palestinians,' said the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. But according to senior Israeli military officials quoted by the New York Times on July 26, Israel 'never found proof' that the group had 'systematically stolen aid' from the UN. Weakened by the war with Israel which has seen most of its senior leadership killed, Hamas today is made up of 'basically decentralised autonomous cells' said Shehada. He said while Hamas militants still hunker down in each Gaza neighbourhood in tunnels or destroyed buildings, they are not visible on the ground 'because Israel has been systematically going after them'. Aid workers told AFP that during the ceasefire that preceded the March blockade, the Gaza police—which includes many Hamas members—helped secure humanitarian convoys, but that the current power vacuum was fostering insecurity and looting. 'UN agencies and humanitarian organisations have repeatedly called on Israeli authorities to facilitate and protect aid convoys and storage sites in our warehouses across the Gaza Strip,' said Bushra Khalidi, policy lead at Oxfam. 'These calls have largely been ignored,' she added. 'All kinds of criminal activities' The Israeli army is also accused of having equipped Palestinian criminal networks in its fight against Hamas and of allowing them to plunder aid. 'The real theft of aid since the beginning of the war has been carried out by criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces, and they were allowed to operate in proximity to the Kerem Shalom crossing point into Gaza,' Jonathan Whittall, Palestinian territories chief of the UN humanitarian office (OCHA), told reporters in May. According to Israeli and Palestinian media reports, an armed group called the Popular Forces, made up of members of a Bedouin tribe led by Yasser Abu Shabab, is operating in the southern region under Israeli control. The ECFR describes Abu Shabab as leading a 'criminal gang operating in the Rafah area that is widely accused of looting aid trucks'. The Israeli authorities themselves acknowledged in June that they had armed Palestinian gangs opposed to Hamas, without directly naming the one led by Abu Shabab. Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center of Tel Aviv University, said many of the gang's members were implicated in 'all kinds of criminal activities, drug smuggling, and things like that'. 'None of this can happen in Gaza without the approval, at least tacit, of the Israeli army,' said a humanitarian worker in Gaza, asking not to be named. — AFP
Sinar Daily
9 hours ago
- Sinar Daily
'Unspeakable horror': The attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The first atomic bomb was dropped on the western city of Hiroshima by the US bomber Enola Gay, nicknamed "Little Boy". 04 Aug 2025 08:15pm This file photo taken in 1945 next to the Urakami river in Nagasaki shows a wrecked brick wall and a Mitsubishi steel factory after the US bombing of the city. The US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 left around 140,000 people dead. It was followed days later by the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9 that killed around 74,000 people. The twin bombings dealt the final blow to imperial Japan, which surrendered on August 15, 1945, bringing an end to World War II. (Photo by AFP) TOKYO - Japan this week marks 80 years since the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. The first on August 6, 1945 killed around 140,000 people in Hiroshima and three days later another 74,000 perished in Nagasaki. This file photo taken on March 29, 1946 in Roswell, New Mexico shows the US military airplane nicknamed Bockscar, which dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945 at the end of World War II. The US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 left around 140,000 people dead. It was followed days later by the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9 that killed around 74,000 people. The twin bombings dealt the final blow to imperial Japan, which surrendered on August 15, 1945, bringing an end to World War II. (Photo by AFP) Here are some facts about the devastating attacks: The bombs The first atomic bomb was dropped on the western city of Hiroshima by the US bomber Enola Gay, nicknamed "Little Boy". It detonated about 600 metres from the ground, with a force equivalent to 15,000 tonnes of TNT. Tens of thousands died instantly, while others succumbed to injuries or illness in the weeks, months and years that followed. Three days later the US dropped a second bomb, dubbed "Fat Man", on the southern city of Nagasaki. The attacks remain the only time atomic bombs have been used in wartime. The attacks In Hiroshima, the first thing people noticed was an "intense ball of fire", according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Temperatures near the blast reached an estimated 7,000 degrees Celsius (12,632 degrees Fahrenheit), which incinerated everything within a radius of about three kilometres (five miles). "I remember the charred bodies of little children lying around the hypocentre area like black rocks," Koichi Wada, a witness who was 18 at the time of the Nagasaki attack, has said of the bombing. ICRC experts say there were cases of temporary or permanent blindness due to the intense flash of light, and subsequent related damage such as cataracts. A whirlwind of heat generated also ignited thousands of fires that ravaged large parts of the mostly wooden city. A firestorm that consumed all available oxygen caused more deaths by suffocation. It has been estimated that burn- and fire-related casualties accounted for more than half of the immediate deaths in Hiroshima. The explosion generated an enormous shock wave that blew people through the air. Others were crushed to death inside collapsed buildings or injured or killed by flying debris. Radiation effects Radiation sickness was reported in the aftermath by many who survived the initial blasts and firestorms. Acute symptoms included vomiting, headaches, nausea, diarrhoea, haemorrhaging and hair loss, with radiation sickness fatal for many within a few weeks or months. Survivors, known as "hibakusha", also experienced longer-term effects including elevated risks of thyroid cancer and leukaemia, and both Hiroshima and Nagasaki have seen elevated cancer rates. Of 50,000 radiation victims from both cities studied by the Japanese-US Radiation Effects Research Foundation, about 100 died of leukaemia and 850 suffered from radiation-induced cancers. The group found no evidence however of a "significant increase" in serious birth defects among survivors' children. The aftermath The twin bombings dealt the final blow to imperial Japan, which surrendered on August 15, 1945, bringing an end to World War II. Historians have debated whether the bombings ultimately saved lives by bringing an end to the conflict and averting a ground invasion. But those calculations meant little to survivors, many of whom battled decades of physical and psychological trauma, as well as the stigma that sometimes came with being a hibakusha. Despite their suffering, many survivors were shunned -- in particular for marriage -- because of prejudice over radiation exposure. Survivors and their supporters have become some of the loudest and most powerful voices opposing nuclear weapons, including meeting world leaders to press their case. Last year, the Japanese anti-nuclear group Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of hibakusha, won the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2019, Pope Francis met several hibakusha in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, decrying the "unspeakable horror" and calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. In 2016, Barack Obama became the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima. He offered no apology for the attack, but embraced survivors and called for a world free of nuclear weapons. Russia is one of around 100 countries expected to attend this year's memorial in Nagasaki, the first time Moscow has been invited to commemorations in the city since the start of the war with Ukraine. - AFP
The Star
12 hours ago
- The Star
'Unspeakable horror': the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 80 years after and it still hurts
TOKYO (AFP): Japan this week marks 80 years since the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II. The first on August 6, 1945 killed around 140,000 people in Hiroshima and three days later another 74,000 perished in Nagasaki. Here are some facts about the devastating attacks: - The bombs - The first atomic bomb was dropped on the western city of Hiroshima by the US bomber Enola Gay, nicknamed "Little Boy". It detonated about 600 metres from the ground, with a force equivalent to 15,000 tonnes of TNT. Tens of thousands died instantly, while others succumbed to injuries or illness in the weeks, months and years that followed. Three days later the US dropped a second bomb, dubbed "Fat Man", on the southern city of Nagasaki. The attacks remain the only time atomic bombs have been used in wartime. This photo, taken in 1948, shows a view of the devastated city of Hiroshima in Japan, three years after the first atomic bomb was dropped on a population. The US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, left around 140,000 people dead. It was followed days later by the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9 that killed around 74,000 people. The twin bombings dealt the final blow to imperial Japan, which surrendered on August 15, 1945, bringing an end to World War II. -- Photo by AFP - The attacks - In Hiroshima, the first thing people noticed was an "intense ball of fire", according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Temperatures near the blast reached an estimated 7,000 degrees Celsius (12,632 degrees Fahrenheit), which incinerated everything within a radius of about three kilometres (five miles). "I remember the charred bodies of little children lying around the hypocentre area like black rocks," Koichi Wada, a witness who was 18 at the time of the Nagasaki attack, has said of the bombing. ICRC experts say there were cases of temporary or permanent blindness due to the intense flash of light, and subsequent related damage such as cataracts. A whirlwind of heat generated also ignited thousands of fires that ravaged large parts of the mostly wooden city. A firestorm that consumed all available oxygen caused more deaths by suffocation. It has been estimated that burn- and fire-related casualties accounted for more than half of the immediate deaths in Hiroshima. The explosion generated an enormous shock wave that blew people through the air. Others were crushed to death inside collapsed buildings or injured or killed by flying debris. A photo dated September 1945 of the remains of the Prefectural Industry Promotion Building after the bombing of Hiroshima, which was later preserved as a monument. The US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, left around 140,000 people dead. It was followed days later by the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9 that killed around 74,000 people. The twin bombings dealt the final blow to imperial Japan, which surrendered on August 15, 1945, bringing an end to World War II. -- Photo by AFP - Radiation effects - Radiation sickness was reported in the aftermath by many who survived the initial blasts and firestorms. Acute symptoms included vomiting, headaches, nausea, diarrhoea, haemorrhaging and hair loss, with radiation sickness fatal for many within a few weeks or months. Survivors, known as "hibakusha", also experienced longer-term effects including elevated risks of thyroid cancer and leukaemia, and both Hiroshima and Nagasaki have seen elevated cancer rates. Of 50,000 radiation victims from both cities studied by the Japanese-US Radiation Effects Research Foundation, about 100 died of leukaemia and 850 suffered from radiation-induced cancers. The group found no evidence however of a "significant increase" in serious birth defects among survivors' children. This file photo from the US Air Force, taken in August 1945, shows Maj. Theodore Van Kirk (L), navigator, Col. Paul Tibbets (C), pilot, and Maj. Thomas Ferebee, bombardier, after dropping the first atomic bomb on Japan. The US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, left around 140,000 people dead. It was followed days later by the bombing of Nagasaki on August 9 that killed around 74,000 people. The twin bombings dealt the final blow to imperial Japan, which surrendered on August 15, 1945, bringing an end to World War II. - Photo: AFP - The aftermath - The twin bombings dealt the final blow to imperial Japan, which surrendered on August 15, 1945, bringing an end to World War II. Historians have debated whether the bombings ultimately saved lives by bringing an end to the conflict and averting a ground invasion. But those calculations meant little to survivors, many of whom battled decades of physical and psychological trauma, as well as the stigma that sometimes came with being a hibakusha. Despite their suffering, many survivors were shunned -- in particular for marriage -- because of prejudice over radiation exposure. Survivors and their supporters have become some of the loudest and most powerful voices opposing nuclear weapons, including meeting world leaders to press their case. Last year, the Japanese anti-nuclear group Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of hibakusha, won the Nobel Peace Prize. In 2019, Pope Francis met several hibakusha in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, decrying the "unspeakable horror" and calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. In 2016, Barack Obama became the first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima. He offered no apology for the attack, but embraced survivors and called for a world free of nuclear weapons. Russia is one of around 100 countries expected to attend this year's memorial in Nagasaki, the first time Moscow has been invited to commemorations in the city since the start of the war with Ukraine. - AFP
