Gangs Loot UN Aid to Gaza With Israeli Help

An internal United Nations memo obtained by The Washington Post reveals that criminal gangs are looting humanitarian aid in Gaza under the protection of the Israeli military.

According to the memo, organized crime groups have been systematically seizing aid supplies in areas directly controlled and patrolled by the Israel military, significantly worsening the humanitarian crisis in the besieged enclave.

The report also quotes a senior official from a major international relief organization as stating that “We have not witnessed any interference from Hamas in our programs, whether in the north or the south”, denying Israeli accusations against the resistance movement.

Memo Exposes Israeli Complicity

The internal document concludes that these gangs “may be benefiting from a passive if not active benevolence” or even “protection” from the Israeli army.

Specifically, the memo highlights that one gang leader established a “military-like compound” in a restricted area near Karem Abu Salem crossing, which is closely monitored by Israeli forces.

Despite the presence of Israeli troops nearby, aid organizations report that Israeli soldiers have repeatedly decided not to intervene during attacks on aid convoys.

Increasing Violence Against Aid Convoys

Officials from various aid groups, humanitarian workers, and transport companies describe how gangs have turned looting into an organized criminal enterprise, often resorting to extreme violence.

Armed men have attacked aid truck drivers, leading to kidnappings and, in some cases, fatalities. In a major incident reported last week, nearly 98 out of 109 trucks carrying UN food aid were ransacked near the border crossing. The attackers not only stole food but also injured several transporters and severely damaged vehicles.

According to Muhannad Hadi, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territories, the security situation in Gaza has completely deteriorated. “Gaza is basically lawless,” he said. “There is no security anywhere.” He emphasized that, as the occupying power, Israel bears the responsibility to protect and secure the aid convoys entering the region.

Aid Organizations Plead for Protection

The memo further outlines how aid organizations have repeatedly requested Israeli authorities to implement better security measures, including safer routes and permission for Gaza’s civilian police to protect convoys. However, these requests have largely been denied.

The Israeli military has denied any involvement, claiming that its forces are focused on facilitating aid transfers and have carried out “targeted countermeasures” against the looters without causing collateral damage.

Mounting Humanitarian Crisis

The looting has exacerbated an already dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza. As winter approaches, aid organizations struggle to deliver critical food, hygiene items, and shelter supplies to over 2 million displaced Palestinians.

With aid supplies dwindling to their lowest levels since the early stages of the genocide, millions are now at risk of severe hunger.

The Biden administration had decided to maintain its military aid to Israel, despite mounting evidence of Israel’s systematic starvation campaign against Gaza, claiming that Israel has not breached American laws on blocking aid supplies. Earlier on the same day, Israel’s Defence Ministry confirmed that it has no immediate plans to send aid to the besieged northern Gaza Strip.

The Ministry of Interior in Gaza has announced on Monday that it stated a large-scale security operation targeting outlaws, who have been looting humanitarian aid under the protection of Israeli forces. According to sources within the ministry, the crackdown led to the neutralization of Abu Shabab, who was mentioned in the UN memo as the main gang leader, as well as over 20 members of his gang according to the Quds News Network.

CrossFireArabia

CrossFireArabia

Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

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Amnesty Condemns Netanyahu’s Visit to Hungry

Responding to reports that Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has invited and plans to host Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Hungary on Wednesday, Erika Guevara-Rosas the head of Global Research, Advocacy and Policy of Amnesty International said:

“Prime Minister Netanyahu is an alleged war criminal, who is accused of using starvation as a method of warfare, intentionally attacking civilians and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.  As a member state of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Hungary must arrest him if he travels to the country and hand him over to the Court. Any trip he takes to an ICC member state that does not end in his arrest would embolden Israel to commit further crimes against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

“Netanyahu’s reported visit should be seen as a cynical effort to undermine the ICC and its work, and is an insult to the victims of these crimes who are looking to the Court for justice. Hungary’s invitation shows contempt for international law and confirms that alleged war criminals wanted by the ICC are welcome on the streets of a European Union member state.

“Netanyahu’s visit to Hungary must not become a bellwether for the future of human rights in Europe. European and global leaders must end their shameful silence and inaction, and call on Hungary to arrest Netanyahu during a visit which would make a mockery of the suffering of Palestinian victims of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, its war crimes in other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and its entrenched system of apartheid against all Palestinians whose rights it controls.

“Amnesty International calls on the ICC Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute all Israel’s crimes. Hungary should equally do so by applying universal jurisdiction principles. Powerful leaders, like Netanyahu, accused by the ICC of war crimes and crimes against humanity, must no longer enjoy the prospect of perpetual impunity.”

“The ICC was established to ensure accountability for victims of genocide and other crimes under international law, and so that crimes which shock the human conscience would “never again” be accompanied by impunity. In ‘bringing power to justice’, the ICC is now facing a global backlash from powerful leaders seeking to undermine the international rule of law and stamp out the prospect of accountability for the most powerful.”

Background

In November 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as al-Qassam brigades commander Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Since then, leaders from ICC member states France, Germany, Italy, Hungary and Poland have stated or implied that they would not arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if he travelled to their respective countries. The United States has also enacted sanctions against the ICC Prosecutor, Karim Khan.

A cornerstone principle of the ICC’s founding Rome Statute is that all individuals subject to ICC arrest warrants must be arrested and surrendered to the Court without recourse to immunity when they are within the jurisdiction of ICC member states, including on their territory.

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Israel Violates Syria With 11 Air Raids

Israel will not leave Syria alone! Israeli raids, Wednesday evening, struck the Scientific Research Institute in the Barzeh neighborhood in Damascus according to Sana, the Syrian news agency.

https://twitter.com/warintel4u/status/1907509948881502435

Israeli warplanes went on to strike the Hama military base with more than 11 air raids, Sana pointed out. later reports show that the military airport was targeted 17 times.

The Israeli Channel 12 added that an additional target was the T4 military airport in rural Homs.

The Israeli raids, almost daily, started months ago on Syria and its capital, Damascus, and increased after 9 December 2024 when there was a change of regime in the country.

Residents in Damascus said they heard loud explosions after the intense air raids that targeted the scientific building in Barzeh.

But before that Israel has been conducting deadly air raids, literally mounting to thousands on Syria for years under the now ousted Baath regime of President Bashar Al Assad.

Israel then claimed it was targeting Hezbollah and Iranian bases but there were many deaths and injuries.

Israel occupied most of the Syrian Golan Heights after the 1967 Arab-Israel war, and took advantage of the fall of the regime and occupying the country’s buffer zone and declaring the collapse of the 1974 disengagement agreement between the two sides.

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