Hamas has executed a number of alleged looters after several incidents in which heavily armed gangs attacked food stores and community kitchens in the Gaza Strip this week, sources close to the Palestinian militant group said.

Locked, sealed and devastated by Israeli bombings, Gaza is facing starvation. Thousands of children have already been treated for malnutrition. Exhausted, displaced and surviving on basics for over a year and half of war, parents like Abdelaal watch their children waste away and find there is little they can do. They are out of options.

The chaos at the community kitchen in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on Friday was too overwhelming for Niveen Abu Arar. She tried and tried, but the 33-year-old mother of eight didn’t get to the front of the crowd in time.

An international NGO accused Malta on Sunday of impeding access to a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid ship which it says was bombed by two drones two days before, and Malta denied the claim, saying the crew had refused assistance.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition accused Israel of attacking its ship, but did not provide evidence for that claim or to show that the fire was caused by drones.