The UN refugee agency for Palestine refugees said on Sunday it was halting large-scale aid deliveries across the war-torn Gaza Strip due to the threat of armed gangs who have recently hijacked convoys. He blamed the breakdown of law and order in most of Israel's policies.
The decision could exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as a cold, rainy winter begins, with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in filthy tents and relying on international food aid. Experts were already warning of famine in the northern region, which the Israeli army has almost completely isolated since early October.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the main aid provider in Gaza, said the route leading to the Kerem Shalom crossing is the most dangerous on the Gaza side. Armed men robbed close to 100 trucks traveling on this route in mid-November, he said the bandits stole some smaller ones on Saturday.
Kerem Shalom is the only crossing between Israel and Gaza designed for shipping and has been the main route for aid deliveries since the Rafah crossing into Egypt was closed in May. Last month, nearly two-thirds of all aid entering Gaza came through Kerem Shalom, and in recent months it has accounted for an even greater number, according to Israeli figures.
In an article on X, Lazzarini heavily blamed Israel for the collapse of humanitarian operations in Gaza, citing “political decisions to limit the amount of aid,” the lack of security on aid routes and Israel's targeting of the Hamas-run police force, which previously provided public security.
About 100 trucks carrying Palestinian food were violently looted on Nov. 16. after entering Gaza through an unknown route ordered by Israel, said UNRWA and the World Food Programme.
COGAT, Israel's military ministry in charge of aid transfers, denies that it is blocking humanitarian aid in Gaza, says there is no limit on supplies to civilians and blames delays on the part of the United Nations, which it says is ineffective.
Israel accuses UNRWA of allowing Hamas into its positions – allegations denied by the UN agency – and enacted a law cutting ties with it last month.
Israel strikes at night
Israeli strikes in Gaza, meanwhile, killed at least six people overnight, including two young children, aged six and eight, who died in a tent where their family had taken refuge, medical officials said Sunday.
The strike in Muwasi, a violent tent camp housing hundreds of thousands of homeless people, also injured the children's mother and her eight-month-old sister, according to nearby Nasser Hospital. An Associated Press reporter at the hospital saw the bodies.
The search for food in Gaza has become more difficult as the Israel-Hamas war continues, and as the forces of hunger begin, the rush of aid packages dropped from planes can be dangerous. One man told a CBC News freelance videographer that there are families sheltering in the fields where the drops happen, and if the boxes stay close, they are sued and those families will shoot anyone who comes near them.
A separate strike in the southern city of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, killed four men, according to hospital records.
The Israeli military said it was not aware of strikes in both areas. Israel says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians, but its daily strikes in Gaza often kill women and children.
In another development, a project launched by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen triggered an attack on central Israel. Israeli forces said they intercepted the gun before it entered Israeli territory.
The case of ethnic cleansing
A former Israeli general and defense minister has accused the government of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, where Israeli forces have been carrying out the latest series of attacks against Hamas since early October.
The army has sealed off the northern towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, as well as the Jabalia refugee camp, and has allowed virtually no humanitarian aid to enter. Tens of thousands of people have fled, while the United Nations estimates that around 75,000 remain.
Moshe Yaalon, who served as defense minister under Benjamin Netanyahu before stepping down in 2016 and became a staunch critic of the prime minister, said the current right-wing government is out to “take over, assimilate, ethnically cleanse.”
Pressed by an interviewer with a local news agency on Saturday, he said: “There is no Beit Lahiya. There is no Beit Hanoun. (They are) working now in Jabalia, and (they) are actually cleaning up the Arab area.”
Yaalon doubled down on Sunday's comments in an interview with Israeli radio, saying “war crimes are being committed here.”
Netanyahu's Likud party criticized his earlier remarks, accusing him of making “false statements” that are “a prize of 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, accusing them of crimes against humanity. The International Court of Justice is investigating allegations of genocide in Israel.
Israel denies the allegations and says both courts are biased.
The war in Gaza is not over despite ending the fighting with Hezbollah
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led forces invaded southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and abducting 250 people, according to Israeli officials. About 100 hostages are still being held inside Gaza, about two-thirds are believed to be alive.
Israeli retaliation has killed more than 44,000 Palestinians, more than half of whom are women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which would not say how many of the dead were soldiers. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 soldiers, without providing evidence.
The war has devastated many coastal areas and displaced 90 percent of the 2.3 million people, many times over.
Israel reached a deal to end hostilities with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah last week, but that agreement, brokered by the United States and France, did not address the ongoing war in Gaza. Iran – which supports Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis and armed groups in Syria and Iraq – has exchanged fire with Israel twice this year.
The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent much of the past year trying to break a ceasefire in Gaza and free the remaining hostages, but those efforts have stalled as Israel has rejected Hamas's request for a full withdrawal from the area. The Biden administration says it will make another push for a deal in its final weeks in office.
US President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to end wars in the Middle East, without saying how. He was a staunch defender of Israel and its policies towards the Palestinians during his previous tenure.
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