Long-awaited food supplies have been looted in Gaza overnight while being transported to desperate communities in the war-torn enclave, UN aid teams reported on Friday.
"Fifteen World Food Programme trucks were looted late last night in southern Gaza, while en route to WFP -supported bakeries," the UN agency said. "These trucks were transporting critical food supplies for hungry populations waiting anxiously for assistance."
The development is a blow to continuing efforts to help Gaza's most vulnerable people after Israel allowed a limited number of aid trucks into Gaza earlier this week, following an 11-week total blockade.
Today, Gazans face "hunger, desperation and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming", WFP said, noting that the uncertainty "is contributing to rising insecurity".
"We need support from the Israeli authorities to get far greater volumes of food assistance into Gaza faster, more consistently and transported along safer routes, as was done during the ceasefire," it insisted.
