The IDF said that over the weekend, while the UN was working to open a new route for aid trucks from the Kerem Shalom crossing to the humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, armed Hamas terrorists threatened and fired at a UN team operating at the site, forcing them to leave the area.
The terrorists then seized UN vehicles and used them to erect a sand barricade along the route in order to block future movement of aid convoys. The new corridor had been slated to open in the coming days to expand the delivery of humanitarian supplies, including food, medical equipment, tents and shelter materials, for civilians leaving Gaza City and moving south.
Earlier in the week, UNICEF reported a separate incident in which armed men hijacked four trucks carrying infant formula at gunpoint. The UN agency said the theft deprived 2,700 babies of essential nutrition. Israel has continued to allow shipments of baby formula into Gaza, but Hamas has been stealing the supplies for profit at the public's expense.
Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, head of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), condemned the attacks. "I strongly condemn Hamas' attack on UN workers," Alian said. "We will not allow Hamas to create false narratives of crisis in Gaza and will continue to expose its brutality."
