CAIRO/WASHINGTON: Armed men hijacked dozens of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip overnight and hundreds of desperate Palestinians joined in to take supplies, local aid groups said on Saturday.

The incident was the latest in a series that has underscored the shaky security situation hampering the delivery of aid into Gaza, following the easing of a weeks-long Israeli blockade.

On Saturday, the Israeli military, which relaunched its air and ground campaign in March following a two-month truce, said it was continuing to hit targets in Gaza.

The campaign has cleared large areas along the boundaries of the Gaza Strip, squeezing the population of more than 2 million into an ever narrower section along the coast and around the southern city of Khan Yunis.

Trump vows to remake aid through GHF programme

Israel imposed a blockade on all supplies entering the enclave at the beginning of March in an effort to weaken Hamas and has found itself under increasing pressure from an international community shocked by the increasingly desperate humanitarian situation the blockade has created.

The United Nations said on Friday the situation in Gaza is the worst since the conflict began 19 months ago, with the entire population facing the risk of famine despite a resumption of limited aid deliveries earlier this month.

Israel has been allowing a limited number of trucks from the World Food Programme and other international groups to bring flour to bakeries in Gaza but deliveries have been hampered by repeated incidents of looting.

The World Food Programme said it brought 77 trucks carrying flour into Gaza overnight and early on Saturday and all of them were stopped on the way, with food taken by hungry people.

“After nearly 80 days of a total blockade, communities are starving and they are no longer willing to watch food pass them by,” it said in a statement.

Trump’s controversial efforts

President Donald Trump has slashed US aid and vowed a major rethink on helping the world. A controversial effort to bring food to Gaza may offer clues on what’s to come. Administered by contracted US security with Israeli troops at the perimeter, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is distributing food through several hubs in the conflict-stricken Gaza Strip.

An officially private effort with opaque funding, the GHF began operations on May 26. The organisation said it had distributed 2.1 million meals as of Friday.

The initiative excludes the United Nations, which has long coordinated aid distribution in the conflict-stricken territory and has infrastructure and systems in place to deliver assistance on a large scale.

The UN and other major aid groups have refused to cooperate with GHF, saying it violates basic humanitarian principles, and appears crafted to cater to Israeli military objectives.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2025