On Sunday, starving and desperate Palestinians broke into the aid trucks for food and other supplies in Gaza's Rafah near the border with Egypt.
The humanitarian crisis worsened in Gaza after more than two months of Israeli bombing. The bombardment also forced displacement of people to the enclave's south.
Starving Palestinians Break Into Aid Trucks
TOPSHOT - Palestinians jump on a United Nations truck to receive food aid after several days of Israeli closure of the Tel al-Sultan neighborhood in the southern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Rafah 22 May 2004. Tel al-Sultan neighborhood, one of the worst affected areas, remained without water and electricity, and sewage from burst and backed-up pipes flooded the streets. The Red Cross said the Israeli army had allowed engineers into the area to restore water and sewage-treatment facilities .
According to Al Jazeera, dozens of Palestinians surrounded the aid trucks after the trucks entered the Rafah crossing with Egypt. Palestinians were desperate to get food, forcing some trucks to stop before climbing aboard, pulling food and water boxes down, carrying them off, or passing them off to crowds.
Some trucks were guarded by people wearing masks and carrying sticks.
"The humanitarian situation has become very desperate, not only for the residents of Rafah city but also for the one million displaced Palestinians here who are becoming hungry, thirsty and traumatized as the war pounds on," Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud said.
Mahmoud added that the supplies on aid trucks that entered the strip were not enough and had forced the Palestinians into survival mode. He said people were nothing without a home and access to food, water, and medical supplies.
He explained that the commotion at Rafah crossing was a natural response when people starve to death, and this was already expected to happen.
Last week, the United Nations warned that people in Gaza were so desperate for food that they stopped aid trucks and immediately ate what they found. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, said the residents have never experienced this kind of hunger despite their long history of suffering under Israeli blockade.
Lazzarini claimed that he saw with his eyes that people in Rafah had started to decide to help themselves directly from the truck out of total despair and eat what they had taken out of the truck on the spot.
Furthermore, Carl Skau, the deputy head of the UN World Food Programme, confirmed that nearly half of the people in Gaza were currently starving. WFP reported half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million was starving due to the Israeli military's assault on the southern part of the enclave, and people were cut off from supplies.
On Sunday, drone footage from southern Gaza showed volunteers from the Gaza Emergency Relief preparing a giant stew.
Despite the surge in needs, aid deliveries crossing into Gaza across Rafah were only a fragment of pre-conflict levels. The aid coming through the border crossing has been slow to deliver the needs of the Gaza population because of delays from truck inspections.
Read Also: Queen's University Students' Science Experiment Selected by NASA for International Space Station
Palestinians in Rafah
Over 12,000 people were staying in Rafah, housing an estimated 85 percent of people displaced across Gaza since the attacks began on October 7.
On October 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israeli territory, killing some 1,140 people and taking another 240 hostages. Furthermore, Israel's bombardment killed 18,787 people and injured another 50,897, while thousands were believed to be buried under the debris.
Israeli air strikes continued to target Rafah despite thousands sheltering at the crossing. Mahmoud reported that a massive explosion occurred overnight in the Geneina district of Rafah, which killed two people and destroyed residential homes.
He said that more than 50 people injured were brought to the Kuwaiti hospital.
Related Article: 10 Israeli Troops Killed in Gaza as Israel Faces Highest Daily Death Toll Since October
