Post By : 2025-05-29"

Security breaks down in Gaza as desperate people search for food"

There is a state of chaos, a breakdown of security, and looting in north Gaza's main city, where Palestinians are desperately searching for food and where aid is difficult to access.

The Hamas-run interior ministry said seven of its police officers deployed to a market in Gaza City on Thursday were killed by an Israeli air strike as they attempted to restore order and confront what it called "looters".

The Israeli military has not commented on the incident, but it did say it had struck "dozens of terror targets" throughout Gaza over the past day.

Local medics and rescuers said at least 44 people were killed across the territory on Thursday, including 23 at the central Bureij refugee camp.

It comes a day after the UN's World Food programme (WFP) said at least two people were shot dead as what it described as "hordes of hungry people" broke into its warehouse in the central town of Deir al-Balah in search of food after 11 weeks of a total Israeli blockade. It was not clear who opened fire.

Almost 50 people were also reportedly shot and injured when thousands overran a new aid distribution centre run by the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in the southern city of Rafah on Tuesday, according to a senior UN official in Gaza. The Israeli military said troops fired warning shots into the air but not at the crowds.

On Thursday, interior ministry police officers armed with Kalashnikov-style rifles and handguns went to a market near Gaza City's central al-Saraya junction, which houses a number of small stalls selling canned food and vegetables.

Videos circulating on social media, too graphic to share, show bodies, blood, and scattered remains lying on the ground following what the ministry said was an Israeli attack.

"Israeli occupation aircraft targeted a number of police officers... while they were performing their duty in confronting a group of looters earlier today, leading to the martyrdom of several officers and civilians in yet another massacre," a statement said.

The BBC requested comment from the Israeli military. It did not address the incident directly in its reply, saying that it was not provided with the "relevant coordinates and the specific time". It added that the IDF "follows international law and takes precautions to mitigate civilian harm".

There has been increased lawlessness in Gaza since Israel began targeting the Gaza interior ministry's police officers last year, citing their role in Hamas governance.

After the territory's police chief and his deputy were killed in a strike in January, the ministry insisted the force was a "civilian protection agency". The Israeli military accused the force of "violating human rights and suppressing dissent".

There were reports of a breakdown of order elsewhere in Gaza on Thursday, as desperate people searched for food and other supplies.

One witness who had gone to a GHF aid distribution centre near Rafah told the BBC that thousands of people had gathered in the area from dawn, and that they ended up breaking through the site's gate to try to obtain supplies.

At 08:00 local time, the witness said, the Israeli military issued a warning via a quadcopter drone instructing people to head to the distribution centre, and that they began moving in an orderly way towards the area.

"For exactly 10 minutes, things were organised but then the crowd broke through the gate and rushed into the courtyard."

"People grabbed boxes and sacks of flour and left, all under the surveillance of the Israeli quadcopter," they added.

Footage from near the GHF site shows thousands of Palestinians walking near the centre on Thursday morning. Some are in horse-drawn carts, while others wheel bicycles covered with goods.

Young men, for the most part, can be seen carrying sacks of flour on their heads and backs. One exhausted woman appears to struggle to walk among the crowd.