The World Food Programme (WFP), a United Nations agency, confirmed on Wednesday that “hordes” of Palestinians stormed one of its warehouses in Central Gaza, storming it for food and leaving at least four dead.
The horrifying incident followed U.N. officials condemning the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a non-U.N. organization backed by America and Israel, for successfully distributing food and other critical aid in Gaza while circumventing attempts by the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas to thwart its efforts. Hamas is the ruling government of Gaza and regularly uses much-needed aid to cement its stranglehold on the impoverished and repressed Gaza population, working in tandem with the United Nations.
The GHF has opened two distribution centers in Gaza this week which have, according to the group, successfully distributed over 800,000 meals without Hamas intervention — and despite Hamas actively warning Palestinian civilians not to take the food.
The WFP incident reportedly occurred on Wednesday at a food warehouse in Deir Al-Balah. The U.N. group claimed that the food in question was “pre-positioned for distribution” but did not explain in its statement how it failed to appropriately hand it out, claiming it was “still confirming details.” Reports from the ground described a scene in which Palestinian civilians “burst into the U.N.’s World Food Program warehouse Wednesday in the central Gaza Strip, pushing each other in the shadow of the cavernous facility’s main door.”
“Others ripped off pieces of the metal walls in an effort to get inside,” the Associated Press detailed.
“Hordes of hungry people broke into WFP’s Al-Ghafari warehouse in Deir Al-Balah, Central Gaza, in search of food supplies that were pre-positioned for distribution,” the WFP statement relayed. “Initial reports indicate two people died and several were injured in the tragic incident. WFP is still confirming details.”
As of Thursday morning, the Associated Press reported that four people had died: two crushed by the “hordes” and two shot to death.
“Gaza needs an immediate scale-up of good assistance,” the WFP detailed, a day after U.N. officials condemned the GHF for immediately scaling up good assistance. “This is the only way to reassure people that they will not starve. WFP urgently calls for safe, unimpeded humanitarian access to enable orderly food distributions across Gaza immediately.”
“WFP has consistently warned of alarming and deteriorating conditions on the ground, and the risks imposed by limiting humanitarian aid to hungry people in desperate need of assistance,” the statement concluded.
The agency notably did not name any particular actors responsible for these “alarming and deteriorating conditions.”
The incident followed the launch of a program by the GHF to distribute food aid independent of the control of Hamas, which largely occurred successfully. The U.N. has been highly critical of the effort while simultaneously demanding more food aid and capitalized on a much smaller scuffle at a GHF distribution center on Tuesday to demand a monopoly over humanitarian aid.
“We have been watching the video coming out of Gaza around one of the distribution points set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,” U.N. chief Antonio Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters. “And frankly, these videos, these images, are heartbreaking to say the least.”
Dujarric claimed that the U.N. “and our partners have a detailed, principled, operationally sound plan supported by Member States to get aid to the desperate population.”
The GHF distribution continued without incident on Wednesday despite Hamas actively threatening civilians, urging them to starve rather than take the aid. Local reports indicated that Hamas set up roadblocks to stop civilians from reaching distribution sites. Hamas terrorists plainly warned civilians not to “fall into the trap” of receiving food.
“Do not risk your lives. Your homes are your fortress. Staying in your neighborhoods is survival, and awareness is your protection,” the Hamas-linked Home Front said in a statement in response to the news that a U.N. alternative for humanitarian aid had arrived. “These schemes will be broken by the steadfastness of a people who do not know defeat.”
Israeli U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon condemned the global body in remarks at the Security Council, stating that the U.N. was “using threats, intimidation and retaliation against NGOs that choose to participate in the new humanitarian mechanism,” while providing a dangerous, Hamas-linked, and ultimately failed method of distributing aid.
“The U.N. should put their ego aside and co-operate with the new mechanism,” Danon recommended.
The U.N. — and in particular its Palestinian agency, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) — has faced years of mounting evidence of collaboration with Hamas, tolerance for jihadist employees, and corruption and theft of its aid. A report by the watchdog group U.N. Watch published in May 2024 revealed that UNRWA employees were stealing humanitarian aid in Gaza to sell at high prices, profiting from what was intended to be free aid to starving civilians. Items listed as commonly stolen included diapers, tissues, and food.
A report in April found that Hamas was also looting and stealing cash from U.N. programs intended for civilians, controlling “distribution” of this aid by demanding a kickback to the jihadist group.
“These people [Hamas] are charging 30 percent just to give you cash. I just want to take care of my family, but everything costs me more because of this. Prices are insane,” a Gaza resident identified Nidal Qawasmeh lamented at the time.
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