U.N. says it is halting aid deliveries through main Gaza crossing because the route is too dangerous

UN halts aid to Gaza due to armed gangs, worsening humanitarian crisis; Israeli strikes kill civilians; former minister accuses ethnic cleansing.

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Sunday (December 1, 2024) it is halting aid deliveries through the main cargo crossing into Gaza because of the threat of armed gangs who have looted recent convoys.

The decision could worsen the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as the cold, rainy winter sets in, with hundreds of thousands of people living in squalid tent camps and reliant on international food aid. Experts were already warning of famine in the territory’s north, which Israeli forces have almost completely isolated since early October.

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the main aid provider in Gaza, said the route leading to the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel is too dangerous on the Gaza side. Armed men looted nearly 100 trucks travelling on the route in mid-November, and he said gangs stole a smaller shipment on Saturday (November 30, 2024).

Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least six people overnight, including two young children who died in the tent where their family was sheltering, medical officials said Sunday (December 1, 2024).

The strike in the Muwasi area, a sprawling tent camp housing hundreds of thousands of displaced people, also wounded the children's mother and their sibling, according to the nearby Nasser Hospital. An Associated Press reporter at the hospital saw the bodies.

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 either location. Israel says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians, but its daily strikes across Gaza often kill women and children.