As of: March 8, 2024, 4:24 p.m
By: Philipp Bräuner
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In Rafah, a group acting as the “People's Protection Committee” has taken power on the streets.
Apparently primarily to counteract usurious food prices.
Rafah - Men armed with clubs and machine guns march through busy streets, stopping people and checking stalls.
These images can currently be seen on various news platforms online.
They apparently come from the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.
The men apparently belong to a group called the People's Committee for Public Protection.
“People's Protection Committee” - armed men take over the streets of Rafah
According to a report by
Al Jazeera,
they say they are taking on police duties in the streets of the border town with Egypt, where around one and a half million people are currently seeking refuge from the Israeli war from attacks by the Israeli army.
Despite the many refugees there, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is apparently still planning an attack on the city.
Armed members of the so-called “People's Committee for Public Protection” patrol the streets of Rafah.
© Fatima Shbair/dpa
“Today the People's Committee for Public Protection was formed to support the Interior Ministry [of Gaza, i.e.
Red.],” says a masked man in the Al Jazeera
video dated February 28
.
According to the spokesman, it was founded to combat exorbitant prices on Rafah's market stalls.
There they will “take action with an iron fist against those who want to enrich themselves from suffering people”.
But the maintenance of public order should also be ensured there.
Armed group “People’s Protection Committee” controls prices in Rafah
According to the report, food prices are actually set by the local Ministry of Economic Affairs precisely to prevent such usury.
However, many sellers would not adhere to this.
The “committee” would then first issue warnings and, in case of repeated violations, confiscate goods in order to sell them themselves at the agreed prices, another masked member of the group told
Al Jazeera
.
In general, food prices in the coastal strip have risen by 75 percent since the outbreak of the war, the report says.
This information cannot be independently verified.
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The “People’s Committee” was apparently founded because the official local police force was disbanded.
This is reported by the Times of Israel
newspaper
, citing the
Reuters news agency.
The authority, which is controlled by the terrorist organization Hamas, went underground after being targeted by the Israeli armed forces in the ongoing conflict.
For this reason, the members of the “People's Committee for Public Protection” are also masked, namely in order not to become a target for the Israeli armed forces, but also not for the gangs that practice price gouging.
The humanitarian situation in Gaza is getting worse
Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in the isolated coastal area continues to worsen.
Only on Tuesday did the UN World Food Program (WFP) again warn of famine for the 2.2 million people living there.
A convoy of 14 delivery trucks loaded with food was turned away by the Israeli army at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint, after which many “desperate people” looted the trucks.
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden ordered the US Army to set up a temporary port for aid supplies on the coast of the Gaza Strip,
afp
first reported, citing government circles.
However, there will be no deployment of US troops on land.
(
pkb
)