Geneva, 27 February 2024 (dpa/MIA) - There are signs that public order is breaking down in the Gaza Strip, with gangs trying to enrich themselves by stealing from aid deliveries and apparently reselling items on the black market, the UN emergency aid organization said on Tuesday.

Lorries carrying aid are often stopped just a few hundred metres behind the border and emptied, according to Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN's Organization for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"There is a certain understanding that desperate people take what they can," he said in Geneva.

However, there are apparently gangs who take material from convoys that later appear on black markets.

"That, of course, should never happen," said Laerke. He said the development is linked to the increasing breakdown of civil order in Gaza, where war has been raging for almost five months.

There is practically no police presence in the sealed-off Palestinian coastal area anymore. However, Laerke ruled out the possibility of UN convoys travelling with armed guards. That is not how the United Nations works, he said.

There is neither sufficient food nor drinking water for the 2.2 million people in the coastal area. OCHA and other aid organizations have criticized Israel for not allowing enough aid deliveries.