The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Friday it has stopped importing aid into the Gaza Strip after the Hamas government seized hundreds of tonnes of food assistance. The decision came after 10 truckloads of rice and flour, more than 200 tonnes, brought in by the agency were seized on Thursday on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, UNRWA said.
The aid was taken away by trucks contracted by the Islamist government's social affairs ministry, a statement said. "UNRWA has suspended all imports of aid into the Gaza Strip following the confiscation of hundreds of tonnes of food aid," it said. "UNRWA's suspension of imports will remain in effect until the aid is returned and the agency is given credible assurances from the Hamas government in Gaza that there will be no repeat of these thefts."
The agency said the incident was the second of its kind in three days. On Tuesday, 3,500 blankets and more than 400 food parcels were seized at gunpoint from a distribution store in Beach Camp, Gaza. Following that, UN humanitarian chief John Holmes slammed as unacceptable the confiscation of aid supplies by Hamas personnel and demanded immediate restitituion.
He warned that such actions could jeopardise delivery of aid at a time when the world body and its partners were doing their best to meet the basic humanitarian needs of Gaza's 1.5 million people still reeling from a recent Israeli military onslaught.
The Hamas social affairs minister, Ahmed al-Kurd, has implicitely admitted that Tuesday's shipment was seized, arguing the aid should be distributed to a wider section of the Gaza population than just those who hold refugee status and benefit from UNRWA assistance. Virtually all aid delivered to Gaza comes from UN and other humanitarian agencies. The deliveries are an exception to the crippling blockade of Gaza, but Israel has regularly responded to Palestinian militants' rocket attacks by preventing aid convoys from entering the besieged territory.
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