Increased looting of food stores and community kitchens in the Gaza Strip shows growing desperation as hunger spreads two months after Israel cut off supplies to the Palestinian territory, aid officials tell Reuters.

The looting “is a grave signal of how serious things have become in the Gaza Strip — the spread of hunger, the loss of hope and desperation among residents as well as the absence of the authority of the law,” said Amjad al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organisations Network (PNGO) in Gaza.

“The looting, while devastating, is not surprising in the face of total systemic collapse. We are witnessing the consequences of a society brought to its knees by prolonged siege and violence,” she said in a statement shared with Reuters.