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The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees says it is halting the delivery of aid through the main cargo crossing to war-torn countries Gaza Strip due to the threat of armed gangs that have robbed recent convoys. The breakdown of law and order was widely blamed Israeli policies.
Sunday’s decision could worsen the situation humanitarian crisis in Gaza as a cold, rainy winter sets in, with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in squalid tent camps and dependent on international food aid. Experts have already warned of famine in the north of the territory, which Israeli forces have almost completely isolated since the beginning of October.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the main aid provider in Gaza, said the route leading to the Kerem Shalom crossing was too dangerous from the Gaza side. Gunmen robbed nearly 100 trucks plying the route in mid-November, and he said gangs stole a smaller shipment on Saturday.
Kerem Shalom is the only crossing between Israel and Gaza designed for cargo shipments and has been the main artery for aid deliveries since the Rafah crossing with Egypt was closed in May. Last month, nearly two-thirds of all aid entering Gaza came through Kerem Shalom, and in previous months the amount was even higher, according to Israeli data.
In a post on X, Lazzarini largely blamed Israel for the collapse of humanitarian operations in Gaza, citing “political decisions to limit aid volumes,” a lack of security on aid routes, and Israel’s targeting of Hamas-run police forces that previously provided public safety.
There was no immediate comment from Israel on the decision.
Israel says it is allowing sufficient aid into Gaza and blames UNRWA and other agencies for not delivering aid. It accuses UNRWA of allowing Hamas to infiltrate its ranks – which the UN agency denies – and last month passed a law cutting ties with it.
At least six people, including children, were killed in the Israeli attacks
Israeli strikes in Gaza, meanwhile, killed at least six people overnight, including two young children, aged six and eight, in a tent where their family was sheltering, medical officials said Sunday.
The strike in the Muwasi area, a large tent camp housing hundreds of thousands of displaced people, also wounded the children’s mother and their eight-month-old sister, according to nearby Nasser Hospital. An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies at the hospital.
In a separate attack on the southern town of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, four men were killed, according to hospital reports.
The Israeli military said it was not aware of any attacks at any location. Israel says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians, but its daily attacks across Gaza often kill women and children.
In another incident, a missile fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen set off air raid sirens in central Israel. The Israeli military said it intercepted the missile before it entered Israeli territory. The Houthis said they fired a ballistic missile at the northern Israeli city of Haifa.
The former defense minister accuses Israel of war crimes
A former senior Israeli general and defense minister has accused the government of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, where Israeli forces have been waging the latest in a series of offensives against Hamas since early October.
The army closed the northern towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, and the Jabaliya refugee camp, and allowed almost no humanitarian aid. Tens of thousands of people have fled, while the United Nations estimates that up to 75,000 remain.
Moshe Yaalon, who served as defense minister under Benjamin Netanyahu before resigning in 2016 and becoming a fierce critic of the prime minister, said the current far-right government was determined to “occupy, annex, ethnically cleanse”.
Pressed by an interviewer from a local news outlet on Saturday, he said: “There is no Beit Lahiya. There is no Beit Hanoun. (They) are now operating in Jabalia, and (they) are actually clearing the territory of Arabs.”
Yaalon doubled down on those statements Sunday in an interview with Israel Radio, saying “war crimes are being committed here.”
Netanyahu’s Likud party criticized his earlier statements, accusing him of making “false statements” that are “a reward for the International Criminal Court and the camp of Israel haters.”
The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, another former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, and a Hamas commander, charging them with crimes against humanity. The International Court of Justice is investigating allegations of genocide against Israel.
Israel denies the charges and says both courts are biased against it.
Israel says Gaza ceasefire talks continue ‘behind the scenes’
The Gaza war began when Hamas-led militants invaded southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 people hostage. About 100 prisoners are still being held in Gaza, of whom about two-thirds are believed to be alive.
Israel’s revenge offensive has killed at least 44,429 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many were killed by fighters. Israel claims to have killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The war destroyed large areas of the coastal enclave and displaced 90 percent of the population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.
Israel reached a ceasefire with Lebanese Hezbollah militants last week that has largely held, but the deal, brokered by the United States and France, did not address the ongoing war in Gaza. Iran — which backs Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and armed groups in Syria and Iraq — has exchanged fire with Israel twice this year.
Pictures capture the exact moment an Israeli missile hits a building in Beirut
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The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent much of the past year trying to broker a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of the remaining hostages, but those efforts have stalled as Israel has rejected Hamas’ demand for a full withdrawal from the territory. The Biden administration said it would once again push for a deal in its final weeks in office.
“There are negotiations going on behind the scenes and it can be done,” Israel’s largely ceremonial President Isaac Herzog said on Sunday.
He was speaking after a meeting with Yael Alexander, whose son, Israeli-American Edan Alexander, is being held by Hamas and appeared in a recent video released by the militants.
US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to end wars in the Middle East, but has not said how. He was a staunch defender of Israel and its policies towards the Palestinians during his previous term.
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