The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, says about 100 trucks carrying food supplies were looted in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.

The agency says more than 2 million people in Gaza depend on humanitarian aid due to severe food shortages.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said at a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday that a UN convoy was assaulted and drivers were forced at gunpoint to unload aid supplies.

Lazzarini said local people had been escorting UN convoys until four or five month ago, but that "this has completely gone."
He said local gangs are "struggling among each other to take control of any business or any activities taking place in the south," making the agency's aid operations impossible in southern Gaza.

UNRWA has issued a statement that said Israeli authorities continue to disregard their legal obligations under international law to facilitate the safe delivery of aid and ensure the population's basic needs are met.

Lazzarini expressed concern that the current situation in Gaza in which UN aid work is disrupted becomes a precedent. He suggested there will be no way to prevent similar cases from happening in 40 to 50 other conflicts in the world.