Anger and looting could push aid workers out of Gaza, says UN official

Looters are desperate Gazans, not criminals, Nestor Owomuhangi says after trip to enclave

The US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has been distributing supplies in an operation marred by violence. AFP

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Rising anger in Gaza fuelled by hunger and desperation to survive could make it dangerous for aid workers to operate, as people struggle and die for food and other supplies, a senior UN official told The National.

“I witnessed families begging much more than I saw before and I could imagine,” said Nestor Owomuhangi, the UN Population Fund's representative for Palestine. “They're doing it not because they want to, but because they don’t have anything in their households.”

On his fifth and most recent trip to the enclave, Mr Owomuhangi said people were even more angry and demanding answers. He told how at a UN-backed site in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, a gynaecologist asked him: “Is there nobody in the entire world that can stop this?”

Mr Owomuhangi did not have an answer that could satisfy her, in a war in which nearly 55,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 126,000 injured.

Against the backdrop of the chaos, looting is on the rise. But Mr Owomuhangi agreed with other UN officials that those responsible are simply desperate people struggling to secure food for their families.

“These are not criminals or people who want to attack the UN and other NGOs. But we're seeing looting attacks, like at a recent health facility, that are unprecedented,” he said.

UN sidelined

The UN has been sidelined by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation which is running an aid operation in the enclave that has left dozens of people killed and injured.

“At least with us, people know they're safe,” Mr Owomuhangi said, adding that people endangering their lives to get aid run the risk of starving to death if they do not.

Nestor Owomuhangi saw people begging for food on his most recent trip to Gaza. Photo: UNFPA

Despite running out of supplies and being paralysed from carrying out their work after decades, the UN has maintained that it will remain in Gaza. But the rising threats from looters and their impact concern Mr Owomuhangi.

“My worry is that soon we’ll be seeing desperate people going into our guesthouses and looting our property, which will make it extremely difficult for the international community to stay in Gaza,” he said.

People are taking items that they can sell, he said, including air conditioners and tyres, as prices for basic good soar.

“We have staff who have run out of food completely. A 25kg bag of wheat flour costs $400,” he said.

Regardless of the chaos and the risks of remaining in Gaza, Mr Owomuhangi hopes that the situation is contained long before the UN and groups like it are forced to leave the enclave entirely.