[News] Qassam Brigades, Security Units Target Collaborators behind Aid Looting

[Anti-Imperialist News]

palestinechronicle.com
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/qassam-brigades-gaza-security-units-target-collaborators-behind-aid-looting/>
Qassam Brigades, Security Units Target Collaborators behind Aid LootingAugust
10, 2025
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Social media platforms on Sunday circulated footage showing members of the
Al-Qassam Brigades burning a car belonging to a suspected aid thief in
Gaza. (Photo: video grab)

*By Palestine Chronicle Staff
<https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/palestine-chronicle-staff>*

Qassam Brigades and Gaza’s Interior Ministry units executed aid thieves
accused of collaborating with Israel, part of a broader campaign against
organized gangs blamed for looting humanitarian convoys under occupation
protection.

Social media platforms on Sunday circulated footage showing members of the
Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Resistance movement
Hamas, burning a car belonging to a suspected aid thief in Gaza City’s
Sheikh Radwan neighborhood.

The video also showed Qassam fighters announcing the “field execution of
aid thieves,” as crowds of residents cheered.

Palestinian media reported that Qassam members, working in coordination
with the Gaza Interior Ministry’s Arrow Unit, “neutralized a group of
thieves and bandits” accused of collaborating with the Israeli occupation
and stealing desperately needed humanitarian aid.

The stated goal, according to the report, was “maintaining security and
ensuring the fair distribution of aid and goods.”

This is not the first such operation. In November 2024, Gaza’s Interior
Ministry said more than 20 individuals identified as members of gangs
stealing aid trucks—allegedly operating under the protection of the Israeli
army—were killed in a security campaign carried out by police forces and
tribal committees.

An investigation
<https://www.aljazeera.net/politics/2024/11/20/%D8%A8%D8%AF%D8%B9%D9%85-%D9%85%D9%86-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%AA%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%84-%D8%B9%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%AA%D8%B3%D8%B7%D9%88-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89>
for Al-Jazeera that month detailed how “organized crime gangs” had
entrenched themselves in areas near Israeli positions, particularly in
eastern Rafah.

Local sources told Al-Jazeera these gangs numbered up to 200 armed men and
operated from what resembled a “military barracks” close to the
Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing.

According to the report, “Hamas and security, factional, and popular
circles in Gaza accuse these gangs of collaborating with the occupation,
for their shared interest in stealing, creating chaos, and undermining the
security and stability of the home front.”

Aid theft in Gaza initially appeared as sporadic and unorganized incidents
in the early months of the war.

 But, according to Al-Jazeera’s findings, the situation escalated into
organized crime after Israeli forces seized the Rafah crossing, severely
restricted aid through Kerem Shalom, and targeted Gaza’s police and
security forces.

This created a vacuum that allowed these gangs—accused of direct
coordination with Israel’s Shin Bet security agency—to expand operations.

The Government Media Office in Gaza has said these groups have been
directly responsible for the deaths of numerous police officers and
security personnel tasked with protecting aid convoys.

The Interior Ministry insists that its operations do not target specific
clans, but rather aim to dismantle networks it says are working
hand-in-hand with the Israeli occupation to starve the population and
destabilize the Strip.

Since October 2023, Israel’s war on Gaza—backed by the United States—has
killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, injured over 152,000, and displaced
nearly the entire population of the Strip, according to Palestinian and
international reports.

*(PC, AJA)*
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