Dramatic Rise in Looting Hampers Aid Delivery in Gaza, New York Times Reports 

Latest Developments 

• Southern Gaza Badly Impacted by Looting: Armed gangs have dramatically stepped up the looting of humanitarian aid intended for Gaza’s civilian population, The New York Times reported on December 23.  According to the report, the situation is particularly acute in southern Gaza, where the gangs are “stealing flour, oil and other commodities and selling them at astronomical prices, aid groups and residents say.” It noted that in “southern Gaza, the price of a 55-pound sack of flour has risen to as much as $220. In northern Gaza, where there are fewer aid disruptions, the same sack can cost as little as $10.” 

• UN Official Blames IDF: The report quoted Georgios Petropoulos, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid in Gaza, asserting that Palestinians in Gaza were now facing “systematic, tactical, armed, crime-syndicate looting” by organized groups. However, Petropoulos went on to accuse the IDF of tolerating “unacceptable amounts of looting of areas that are ostensibly and de facto under their military control.” COGAT — the IDF agency that oversees the flow of aid into Gaza — has said that Israel is not responsible for the distribution of aid once it arrives in the coastal enclave, noting in a November 27 post on social media that 730 trucks that had entered Gaza through Israel’s Kerem Shalom crossing were still waiting for their loads to be distributed. COGAT spokesperson Shani Sasson told the Times that Israeli forces were targeting armed looters who attacked convoys, not just those affiliated with the Hamas terrorist organization, clarifying that Israel was not providing any immunity to criminal gangs stealing aid. 

• Gang Leader Blames Hamas for Looting: Several people interviewed for the report identified Yasser Abu Shabab, whose gang reportedly “dominates much of the Nasr neighborhood in eastern Rafah,” as running the most extensive looting operation. One Palestinian truck driver who was ambushed in Rafah told the Times that a gang member guarding a warehouse containing looted aid had “raised a pistol at me” when he asked for a sack of flour for his family. Abu Shabab denied the allegations, telling the Times, “We are taking trucks so we can eat, not so we can sell. Every hungry person is taking aid.” He accused Hamas of being primarily responsible for stealing the aid, a claim that Hamas has denied. 

FDD Expert Response 

“The chaos with aid distribution in Gaza is just another case in which Israel is damned if it does, damned if it doesn’t — like when Israel was accused of ethnic cleansing for evacuating civilians from combat zones and accused of harming civilians if it didn’t evacuate them. Israel has made sure that enough supplies enter Gaza, but Palestinians themselves are preventing it from reaching their compatriots. When Israel fights off the organized looters, those casualties will be added to the Gaza death toll.” — David May, FDD Research Manager and Senior Research Analyst 

“The looting of aid in Gaza has presented the greatest challenge to providing much-needed assistance to Gazans since day one. In the early days of the war, Hamas was stealing aid from the international community and reselling it in order to enrich the terrorists and drag out the war against Israel. Now — as Hamas has weakened — professional gangs appear to be taking a page out of Hamas’s playbook to steal from their fellow Gazans. Unfortunately, no durable solution to this chaos is possible until Hamas finally surrenders and returns the hostages — that is the best hope for Gazans.” — Enia Krivine, Senior Director of FDD’s Israel Program and National Security Network 

FDD Background and Analysis 

“IDF Kills Terrorists Who Hijacked Gaza Aid Convoy,” FDD Flash Brief 

“’Crisis of Confidence:’ Sweden Eliminates UNRWA Funding Despite Nearly Doubling Gaza Aid For 2025,” FDD Flash Brief 

“Israel Helped Avert a Famine in Gaza, But Gets No Credit,” by David Adesnik