Gaza slides into lethal chaos as desperate Palestinians fight to survive theguardian.com

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Witnesses and NGO records show hundreds have been killed since Israel-backed organisation began distributing food but it says its model is working
Just after midnight on Thursday morning, Abdullah Ahmed left his sleeping wife and children in their small and crowded home in the battered al-Bureij camp in central Gaza and headed north.

The 31-year-old vegetable seller had heard that the nearby food distribution site recently opened by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a secretive Israeli- and US-backed private organisation that began operations in the territory last month, would be handing out food at 2am.

To get there early and maximise his chance of grabbing a box of flour, oil, beans and other basics, Ahmed and some friends set out across the dangerous rubble-strewn roads.

Just reaching the vicinity of the centre, one of four run by the GHF, was dangerous. “All the time we could hear the sound of shells and stray bullets flying over us. We kept taking cover behind the ruins of houses. Whoever doesn’t take cover is exposed to death,” he said.

All last week, every night and most mornings, there were similar scenes across Gaza, as tens of thousands of hungry, desperate people converged on the GHF sites or waited at points where trucks loaded with UN flour were expected.

Every day, somewhere in the devastated territory, these gatherings had a similarly lethal conclusion when Israeli forces open fire.
Food has become extremely scarce in Gaza since Israel imposed a tight blockade on all supplies throughout March and April, threatening many of the 2.3 million people who live there with a “critical risk of famine”. A kilo of sugar now costs 60 times more than before the war and a 25kg bag of flour is up to $500. Fuel for cooking is scarce, fresh vegetables almost unobtainable for many and there is no fresh meat.

Since the blockade was partly lifted last month, the UN has tried to bring in aid but it has faced major obstacles, including rubble-choked roads, Israeli military restrictions, continuing airstrikes and growing anarchy.

Many of the deaths in recent weeks have occurred when rumours spread of the possible arrival of aid trucks sent into Gaza by the World Food Programme (WFP), which was recently given permission by Israel to use northern entry points to Gaza, allowing more direct access to the areas where the humanitarian crisis is most acute.

But none of these deliveries have reached their destinations, all being stopped and offloaded, sometimes by criminal gangs but for the most part by desperate ordinary Palestinians, aid officials said.