Aid is sold in markets and Palestinians flock to free food groceries (Al Jazeera)

Gaza -

“A boy is born and his owner is absent.” A Palestinian woman invoked this popular proverb, as she spoke passionately about what she described as chaos and the widespread manifestations of theft of aid in Gaza and putting it on the markets, which is witnessing an unprecedented rise in prices.

Hanadi Abd Rabbo, “Umm Omar,” says that the absence of oversight and accountability has encouraged the spread of chaos that appears in the markets and the insane prices of most goods, including the types of aid received for those affected through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, and Kerem Shalom, which is under Israeli control.

Recently, the voices of Gazans have been loudly complaining about chaos, the theft of aid and its sale at exorbitant prices, the widespread use of firearms in family quarrels causing the loss of lives, as well as attempts to smuggle and promote drugs.

Al-Najma Market in Rafah, where aid items are offered for sale at fantastic prices (Al-Jazeera)

War thieves

These manifestations are not limited to the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, to which about half of the Strip’s population was displaced and which currently houses approximately 1,400,000 people.

Social media platforms and popular councils are full of talk about incidents of robbery of aid trucks in this city and on the Al-Rashid coastal road, which connects it to the city of Khan Yunis and the areas of the central and northern Gaza Strip.

Umm Omar (46 years old), who is displaced with her family from the northern Gaza Strip to the city of Rafah, says that all the robberies of aid are not motivated by hunger, as much of it is seized, stolen, and put on the market at prices that are not commensurate with the financial condition of the majority of people, especially the displaced who left behind. Their homes and possessions and fled south to save their lives.

“They plundered our homes, and now they are stealing our livelihood and the livelihood of our children,” adds Umm Omar, who learned that thieves had robbed her home and her family’s home in northern Gaza and stolen their contents. This is an incident that was repeated with many displaced people from Gaza City and its north, whose homes were robbed and looted.

Umm Omar supports a family of five children, and her husband works in the government run by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in Gaza, and has received 800 shekels (about 205 dollars) since the outbreak of the war on October 7, and the deteriorating living conditions do not help them provide their needs. Their primary family.

She wonders: “Large quantities of humanitarian aid are on the market at exorbitant prices. Where did they get it from and why did it not reach those who deserve it?” She continued: “Of course, from thieves and bandits who block the way of the trucks and seize their contents.”

Systematic chaos

The absence of police patrols charged with maintaining security and securing aid trucks has led to the spread of robberies by “thieves” who block their paths in several areas of the Strip, seize their cargo with the force of knives and firearms, and then put them up for sale at exorbitant prices.

Palestinian circles say that the occupation contributed to creating chaos with focused targeting operations that appeared to be “intentional and systematic,” especially in the city of Rafah, which last month resulted in the martyrdom of 12 police commanders and members as a result of Israeli air strikes that targeted their personal cars and official cars marked with police colors and markings.

The writer and novelist Yusri al-Ghoul says, “The occupation that has been killing us the most is the one that starves children, incites men to carry white weapons for a handful of flour, and promotes violence through its agents to kill each other.”

Yusri, who refused to move south and is still residing in the Beach refugee camp west of Gaza City, wonders, “Since when have we been carrying knives for a bag of flour or rice?!” He continued in a post on social media platforms: “Everyone who carries weapons must be held accountable before they become weapons.” lesion".

It is said locally that “armed gangs” have formed in Gaza City and its north, waiting for a few aid trucks that the occupation forces allow to arrive there, but they do not reach those who deserve them due to the absence of a responsible party that guarantees fair distribution.

Abu Hamza told Al Jazeera Net that he bought his family two bags of flour, weighing 25 kilograms each, at a price of 4,000 shekels (about a thousand dollars), while their price before the war did not exceed 100 shekels only.

His family lives in the town of Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip, where the occupation forces arrested him for about a month and released him in the city of Rafah.

He says, "The aid that reaches the north is very scarce and does not meet the great needs. Crowds are waiting for it on the roads, and the lucky one is who gets a share of it without being hit by a bullet from the occupation or from gangs of thieves and bandits."

The occupation's targeting of the police led to widespread incidents of thieves seizing aid trucks in Gaza (Al Jazeera)

Popular protection

In an attempt to fill the void in the absence of the police for fear of Israeli targeting, groups called “Popular Protection” were formed, consisting of masked young men equipped with batons, who spread out in the markets to control the security situation and prices.

In response to this, Bassam Abdullah, a journalist from the city of Rafah, said in a post on social media platforms: “The time has come to end the dark image of blood merchants and exploitation, and it must begin with the major thieves of monopolistic merchants and the decision-makers who support them, and put them on trial before the people.” Revolutionary because they exploit people during the time of aggression and in a way uglier than what the occupation does.”

He asked: “What is the difference between an enemy who kills daily and a merchant who slaughters his people?” He considered that popular protection “is a late step, but it is the beginning of controlling the market so that all goods return to their normal prices, especially since we are on the verge of the holy month of Ramadan.”

But a few days after the formation of these committees, Umm Omar did not notice a major change in prices or the absence of aid merchants, with which the markets were still full. She said: “Prices are fire, and the closer we get to the month of Ramadan, they increase more. We are welcoming the month of fasting and we have been fasting for a long time.” Months of hunger, exploitation and monopoly.

According to Firas Adwan, “the dirty game of merchants is still continuing, and prices are rising after the formation of the Popular Protection.”

In Umm Omar’s opinion, this war was “revealing” and showed “the worst in us.” When oversight was absent, “a class of profiteers, thieves, and blood merchants” appeared.

She wondered: “Where is the conscience when it comes to stealing aid and selling it to people facing death at every moment, and what is the justification for the high prices of everything? A kilo of onions that were sold for 3 shekels before the war is now sold for 30 shekels.”

Political analyst Ibrahim Al-Madhoun told Al-Jazeera Net, “The occupation is concerned with creating a vacuum in the Gaza Strip and putting pressure on the popular incubator through chaos and destabilization of security in order for the Palestinian people to transform from a state of steadfastness, cohesion and organization, to a state of dispersion, displacement and chaos.”

He adds that the occupation "wants to create new realities through which it can control the shape and future of the Gaza Strip after the war, and therefore it fights all manifestations of security and stability by all means."

Source: Al Jazeera