Thousands of people broke into aid warehouses in Gaza to take food and “basic survival items”, a UN agency said on Sunday, in a mark of growing desperation and the breakdown of public order in the enclave.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, said its warehouses and distribution centres were looted by people grabbing flour and “basic survival items”.

UNRWA provides services to hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza. Its schools across the territory have been transformed into packed shelters housing Palestinians displaced by the conflict. Israel has allowed only a small trickle of aid to enter from Egypt, some of which was stored in one of the warehouses that was broken into, the agency said.

Thomas White, UNRWA’s Gaza director, said the break-ins were “a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege on Gaza. People are scared, frustrated and desperate”.

One of the warehouses, located in Deir al-Balah, is where UNRWA stores supplies from the humanitarian convoys crossing into Gaza from Egypt.

Aid supplies to Gaza have been choked since Israel began bombarding the densely-populated Palestinian enclave in response to a deadly attack by its ruling militant group Hamas on Oct 7.

“Supplies on the market are running out while the humanitarian aid coming into the Gaza Strip on trucks from Egypt is insufficient,” UNRWA said, adding that the current system to get humanitarian convoys into Gaza was “geared to fail”.

“The needs of the communities are immense, if only for basic survival, while the aid we receive is meagre and inconsistent.”

Tanks and infantry pushed into Gaza over the weekend as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a “second stage” in the war, three weeks after Hamas launched a brutal incursion into Israel. The widening ground-offensive came as Israel pounded the territory from air, land and sea.

The bombardment – described by Gaza residents as the most intense of the war – knocked out most communications in the territory late on Friday, largely cutting off the 2.3 million inhabitants from the world. Communications were restored to many people in Gaza early on Sunday.

Roads to hospital blocked

Residents living near Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest, said Israeli airstrikes overnight on Sunday hit near the hospital complex and blocked many roads leading to it. Israel accuses Hamas of having a secret command post beneath the hospital, without providing much evidence.

Tens of thousands of civilians are sheltering in Shifa, which is also packed with patients wounded in the strikes.

“Reaching the hospital has become increasingly difficult,” Mahmoud al-Sawah, who is sheltering in the hospital, said over the phone. “It seems they want to cut off the area.” Another Gaza City resident, Abdallah Sayed, said the Israeli bombing over the past two days was “the most violent and intense” since the war started. 

Shifa in Gaza City, is in the northern part of the besieged territory. Israel says most residents have heeded its orders to flee to the south, but hundreds of thousands remain in the north, in part because Israel has also bombarded targets in so-called safe zones.

An Israeli airstrike hit a two-story house in the southern city of Khan Younis on Sunday, killing at least 13 people, including 10 from one family. The bodies were brought to the nearby Nasser Hospital, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment when asked about reports of strikes near Shifa. The army said it had struck over 450 militant targets over the last 24 hours, including Hamas command centres, observation posts and anti-tank missile launching positions.

The military also said more forces were sent into Gaza overnight.