An official at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on Monday that the collapse of civil order led to the disruption of the work of four United Nations aid distribution centers and a storage facility in Gaza at a time when people are searching in every way for food and water.

Tom White, Director of UNRWA Affairs in Gaza, said that work at the logistical base at the Rafah border crossing, vital for distributing aid, has become very difficult because eight thousand people are sheltering there.

“With the collapse of civil order, every day we have hundreds of people trying to get into the warehouses to get flour,” White told Reuters.

He added: “People are now trying to survive.” “Their concern is to obtain sufficient flour and water.”

Thousands of Gazans stormed United Nations warehouses yesterday, Sunday, to seize flour and other materials. One of these warehouses is located in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, where UNRWA stores supplies carried by humanitarian aid convoys coming from Egypt to Gaza.

“In effect, we lost the Deir al-Balah base,” White said. We will see to what extent we are able to get it running again, but of course it is complicated because the Rafah logistics base has now become a magnet for people looking for shelter or protection under the banner of the United Nations, or trying to enter the warehouses to get flour.”