Nearly 22 months into the war, the limited food aid Israel permits into Gaza is often seized by desperate civilians under fire, looted by gangs, or diverted in chaos instead of reaching the most vulnerable, U.N. agencies and aid groups said.
After images of malnourished children stoked an international outcry, aid has started to be delivered to the territory once more but on a scale deemed woefully insufficient by international organizations.
Every day, AFP correspondents on the ground see desperate crowds rushing toward food convoys or the sites of aid drops by Arab and European air forces.
On Thursday, in al-Zawayda in central Gaza, emaciated Palestinians rushed to pallets parachuted from a plane, jostling and tearing packages from each other in a cloud of dust.
"Hunger has driven people to turn on each other. People are fighting each other with knives," Amir Zaqot, who came seeking aid, told AFP.
