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Deir al -Balah, Gaza Strip – An Israeli strike struck a street in the center Gaza Thursday, where witnesses said that a crowd of people received bags of flour from a Palestinian police unit which had confiscated the goods of the gangs looting convoys of help. Hospital officials said 18 people had been killed.
The strike was the last violence surrounding the distribution of food to the population of Gaza, which was thrown into a turmoil during the last month. After Block all foods for 2 1/2 monthsIsrael has only granted only a net of supplies on the territory since mid-May.
The United Nations efforts to distribute food have been plagued by armed gangs looting trucks and by crowds of desperate people discharge the supplies of convoys.
The strike in the central city of Deir al-Balah On Thursday, he seemed to target the members of Sahm, a security unit responsible for arresting looters and repressing the merchants who sell stolen aid at high prices. The unit is part of the Ministry of the Interior led by Gaza, but includes members of other factions.
Witnesses said that the SAHM unit distributed bags of flour and other goods confiscated from looters and corrupt merchants, attracting a crowd when the strike struck.
A video of the consequences showed bodies, several torn apart, of several young men in the street with splashes of blood on the sidewalk and the walls of the buildings. The dead included a child and at least seven members of the SAHM, according to the Martyrs of Al-Aqsa in the nearby where victims were made.
There was no immediate comments from the Israeli army. Israel accused the Hamas militant group of stealing help and using it to support its rule in the enclave. Israeli forces have repeatedly struck the Gaza police, considering them a branch of Hamas.
An influential Gaza clan and tribes association said on Wednesday that they had started an independent effort to keep the convoys of help to prevent looting. The national gathering of Palestinian clans and tribes said that he was helping to escort a rare expedition of flour that entered the north of Gaza that evening.
It was not clear, however, if the association had coordinated with the authorities of the UN or the Israeli. The World Food Program did not immediately respond to requests for comments from the Associated Press.
“We will no longer allow thieves to steal the convoys of merchants and force ourselves to buy them at high prices,” AP Abu Ahmad al-Gharbawi told AP Abu, a figure involved in the tribal effort.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Minister of Defense Israel Katz in a joint declaration on Wednesday accused of Hamas to steal aid This enters the north of Gaza and called on the Israeli army to plan to prevent it.
The national rally criticized the declaration, saying that the accusation of theft was aimed at justifying the “aggressive practices” of the Israeli army. He said that the aid was “fully secured” by the tribes who, according to her, were committed to delivering supplies to the population.
The decision of Tribes to protect convoys of help brings another player in a situation of aid which has become fragmented, confused and violent, even if more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza have trouble feeding their family.
Throughout the war of more than 20 months, the UN led the massive help operation by humanitarian groups providing food, shelter, medicines and other products to the Palestinians despite the fighting. The UN and other aid groups claim that when large quantities of supplies are authorized in Gaza, looting and theft decreases.
Israel, however, seeks to replace the system led by non-dried people, saying that Hamas has siphone large amounts of supplies, a complaint that the United Nations and other aid groups deny.
Israel supported an American private entrepreneur, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, who has started to distribute food boxes In four places, mainly in the far south of Gaza last month.
Thousands of Palestinians Walk for hours To reach the hubs, moving through Israeli military areas where witnesses say that Israeli troops regularly open fire with heavy dams to control the crowd.
Health officials say hundreds of people have been killed and injured. The Israeli army says that it only pulled warning fire.
Israel has continued to allow a smaller number of Gaza aid trucks for the United Nations distribution. The World Health Organization said on Thursday that she had been able to deliver her first medical dispatch to Gaza since March 2, with nine trucks bringing blood, plasma and other supplies to Nasser hospital, the largest hospital that still works in southern Gaza.
In Gaza City, large crowds gathered Thursday during a help distribution point to receive bags of convoy flour which arrived the day before, according to photos taken by a cameraman collaborating with AP.
Hiba Khalil, a seven -year -old mother, said that she could not afford a loyal help that is sold on markets at astronomical prices and was relieved to obtain flour for the first time in months.
“We waited for months without having flour or eating a lot and our children were still crying,” she said.
Another woman, Umm Alaa Mekdad, said that she hoped that more convoys were going to pass after having struggled to face the looters.
“The gangs took our actions and the actions of our children who slept hungry and thirsty,” she said.
According to the Ministry of Health, separately, Israeli strikes and early Thursday killed at least 28 people through the Gaza Strip, according to the Ministry of Health of the Territory. More than 20 dead arrived at the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, while the bodies of eight others were taken to Nasser hospital in the south.
