Amid widespread food shortages and a breakdown in political order, groups of desperate civilians in Gaza regularly try to ambush aid convoys, according to two Western officials who were recently in the enclave and images of one such ambush reviewed by The New York Times.
In the images, several dozen young men, some of them carrying clubs, try to block a convoy of trucks from passing as they drive along a major highway in southern Gaza after entering the territory from Egypt. Trucks are briefly forced off the road as drivers swerve to avoid hitting the men. Some of the attackers throw stones at the windshields of the trucks, apparently to try to stop them.
The images, time-stamped indicating they were taken in recent days, were reviewed by a Times reporter.
Such attacks have become common since Israel invaded last year as desperate civilians face starvation in pockets of the enclave, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid complicating their work in Gaza. In one recent attack, the attackers threw an ax into a driver’s cab in an attempt to break into it, while in another the attackers threw a concrete block, according to one of the officials.
Israel blames much of the theft on Hamas, which it accuses of diverting supplies to its own forces.
However, Western officials said the attacks appeared to be carried out mostly by Gazan groups not affiliated with Hamas or were the spontaneous actions of desperate citizens. Hamas officials have little presence on the ground in any part of Gaza, the officials said, and international aid organizations no longer coordinate their movements with the group that until October controlled the entire territory.
Ambushes on aid convoys are partly the result of a breakdown in law enforcement, officials said. Gaza police are now refusing to protect convoys because they fear they will be targeted by Israel because of their relationship with the Hamas government, the officials said. This leaves convoys more vulnerable, they added.
Foreign diplomats say privately that enough food reaches the Gaza border through Egypt to avoid famine, but the problem is distributing it to areas beyond Rafah, the southern city that straddles the Egyptian border.
In northern Gaza, humanitarian groups say another major obstacle is the difficulty of coordinating safe passage with the Israeli army.
Unlike southern Gaza, the north is mostly under full Israeli control, and humanitarian groups say Israel regularly blocks access to Gaza City and surrounding areas.
Israel has accused aid groups of not coordinating their convoys closely enough with the Israeli government and says not all access requests can be granted because of the ongoing fighting.
In one case in early February, the United Nations accused the Israeli navy of shelling an aid convoy heading down the Gaza coastal road to Gaza City. The Israeli military said it was looking into the claim.
