Gaza Herald – A leading French historian says there is compelling evidence that Israel enabled and protected gangs looting aid convoys in Gaza, including by attacking security teams assigned to safeguard humanitarian deliveries. His account aligns with internal UN assessments describing Israel’s “passive, if not active benevolence” toward looters during the genocide.
He also said Israeli forces struck a newly established humanitarian route meant to bypass looting hotspots, bombing the center of the road to render it unusable, a move aid groups viewed as a deliberate attempt to sabotage relief operations. This comes as Israel continues to impose severe restrictions and blockades on life-saving aid throughout the Strip.
Israel has dismissed accusations of orchestrating or aiding looting, though prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that Israel had supported the “Popular Forces,” an anti-Hamas militia known to include looters among its recruits. The historian said the devastation he witnessed in Gaza, where nearly 70,000 Palestinians have been killed and entire neighborhoods erased, reflects a campaign unconcerned with civilian survival or international law.
He warned that Gaza has become “a laboratory of a post-UN, post-Geneva Conventions world,” saying the genocide represents a turning point with global implications: a future where the norms meant to protect civilians collapse, replaced by unchecked brutality.
