GENEVA - Chaos is taking hold in Gaza as smuggling bands form and add to the difficulties in delivering aid, the head of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency said on Tuesday (June 25).

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said it had become "excruciating" to deliver aid and voiced concerns that such conditions would impact efforts to counter the high famine risk confirmed by a global hunger monitor's report on Tuesday.

"Basically, we are confronted nowadays with a near total breakdown of law and order," UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told reporters, blaming in part an increase in gangs who are attacking aid trucks in the hopes of finding smuggled cigarettes stashed among aid supplies. "It's becoming more and more complicated (to deliver aid)," he added.

Local police are refusing to escort aid convoys for fear of being killed, he added, while humanitarian truck drivers were regularly being threatened or assaulted.

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