20 killed in anti-'gang' operation after looting of aid convoy: Gaza ministry

Gaza's Hamas-run interior ministry said Monday (Nov 18) that at least 20 people were killed in an operation targeting "gangs" that looted trucks bringing aid into the war-torn territory threatened with famine.

The Guardian reported that gunmen attacked and looted around 100 trucks carrying desperately needed supplies in the war-hit zone. The attack was reported to be the biggest during 13 months of the Israel-Hamas war. 

"More than 20 members of gangs involved in stealing aid trucks were killed in a security operation carried out by security forces in cooperation with tribal committees," the ministry said in a statement, according to AFP.

"Today's security operation will not be the last," it said, adding that "the phenomenon of truck thefts... has severely impacted society and led to signs of famine in southern Gaza".

The statement called the operation "the beginning of a broad security campaign that has been long planned and will expand to include everyone involved in the theft of aid trucks".

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A source from the European hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis told AFP it had received the bodies of 15 people killed in connection with Monday's anti-looter operation.

An interior ministry source told AFP that 20 were killed in connection with the looting on Saturday of a World Food Programme convoy bringing aid into Gaza.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a press briefing in New York Monday that only 11 of the convoy's 109 trucks made it to the warehouse after entering through the Kerem Shalom crossing near the Egyptian border.

He said there was "severe damage to the trucks and in some cases, total loss of cargo on the trucks".

Dujarric called the incident the worst instance of looting in Gaza "in terms of volume".

He said the convoy had been initially planned for Sunday, but Israel's military told it "to depart on short notice via an alternate, unfamiliar route".

Israel, which imposed a total siege on the Hamas-ruled territory in the early stages of the war last year, often blames the inability of relief organisations to handle and distribute large quantities of aid.

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Aid distribution is further complicated by shortages of fuel, war-damaged roads and looting, as well as fighting in densely populated areas and the repeated displacement of much of Gaza's 2.4 million people.

Several humanitarian officials told AFP on condition of anonymity that almost half the aid that enters Gaza is looted, especially basic supplies.

(With inputs from agencies)