The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) announced Friday it will suspend its humanitarian aid to Gaza until further notice due to a Hamas raid on the agency's distribution center and a subsequent attack on an aid convoy.
Hamas police attacked a convoy of trucks carrying humanitarian aid supplies from the agency's warehouse in Israel to its distribution center in Gaza on Thursday, stealing 200 tons of food, according to IDF Major Peter Lerner, spokesman for Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).
The terrorist force also held up the UNRWA distribution store at Beach Camp in Gaza on Tuesday, stealing 3,500 blankets and 406 tons of food parcels intended for 500 impoverished families in the region. The raid was carried out after UNRWA staff had earlier refused to hand over the supplies to the Hamas-run Ministry of Social Affairs, according to the agency's Jerusalem-based spokesman, Chris Gunness.
Lerner confirmed the report that UNRWA had decided to suspend its aid to the region till further notice due to the thefts, both of which were carried out at gunpoint.
This is not the first time that Hamas terrorists have stolen humanitarian aid supplies meant for the poor in Gaza, according to the IDF. However, it was the first time they had looted from UNRWA, according to Gunness, who expressed the agency's disappointment with the group's actions.
UNRWA runs 221 schools and dozens of medical clinics in Gaza; the agency also distributes food packages and quarterly cash stipends to thousands of impoverished families throughout the region.