By Janet Ekstract-United Nations- In sheer desperation, thousands of Gazans have stormed U.N. warehouses in a desperate attempt to get supplies ever since a 24-hour communications blackout on Friday, according to the U.N.’s World Food Program (WFP). The WFP, the UNRWA reported the incidents on Sunday. A warehouse in Deir al-Balah where UNRWA stores supplies for humanitarian convoys coming from Egypt was raided. Also reports came in of a raid on a warehouse with 80 tons of mixed food commodities, primarily canned food, wheat flour and sunflower oil – being stored for distribution to displaced families. Meanwhile, the Director of the U.N. refugee agency UNRWA Affairs in the Gaza Strip Thomas White said in a tweet: “This is a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege on Gaza.” White reported that the situation is causing panic, fear and desperation among the population especially after the communication blackout.
As White commented: “They feel that they are on their own, cut off from their families inside Gaza and the rest of the world.” He added that the extreme situation of displacing people from north of the Gaza Strip to the south, put incredible stress on those communities. He reported that some families house up to 50 relatives in one household which is why White said that “supplies on the market are running out.” He also said that humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip from Egypt is “insufficient” and that the “needs of the communities are immense, if only for basic survival, while the aid we receive is meager and inconsistent.” So far, he reported that over 80 trucks of aid crossed into Gaza in a week. Then due to the blackout, on Saturday October 28, no trucks could make it in since no one was able to communicate to various organizations to coordinate the safe passage of the aid.
The UNRWA official warned: “The current system of convoys is geared to fail,” because he said there are “few trucks, slow processes, strict inspections, supplies that do not match the requirements of UNRWA and the other aid organizations, and mostly the ongoing ban on fuel, “are all a recipe for a failed system.” White added: “We call for a regular and steady flow line of humanitarian supplies into the Gaza Strip to respond to the needs especially as tensions and frustrations grow.” The latest reports indicate that UNRWA teams in Gaza said internet services and connections have been restored so they will reconfigure the situation on how best to get assistance in again.
