The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees has halted the delivery of aid through the Karem Abu Salem crossing (known as Kerem Shalom to Israelis) between Israel and Gaza due to security concerns, a declared its leader, as widespread hunger and deadly Israeli bombings continue.
“We are suspending the delivery of aid through Kerem Shalom, the main crossing point for humanitarian aid into Gaza. The road out of this passage has not been safe for months. On November 16, a large convoy of humanitarian trucks was stolen by armed gangs,” UNRWA director Philippe Lazzarini said in a message on X.
“Yesterday we tried to get a few food trucks on the same route. They were all taken away,” he added, warning that hunger was “increasing rapidly” in Gaza.
Lazzarini explained how the humanitarian operation had become “unnecessarily impossible” due to “the ongoing siege, obstacles from Israeli authorities, political decisions to limit aid quantities, lack of security on routes aid and targeting of local police.
He called on Israel to guarantee the delivery of aid to Gaza and said the country “must refrain from any attacks against aid workers.”
On Thursday, the UN agency said that “of the 91 attempts made by the agency to deliver aid to besieged northern Gaza between October 6 and November 25, 82 were refused and 9 obstructed.”
Israel has been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war, as it has restricted the supply of food, medicine and other essential items to Gaza since the war began last October. Since then, more than 44,000 Palestinians have been killed under relentless Israeli bombardment.
Targeting humanitarian convoys
Louise Wateridge, UNRWA’s emergency manager, told Tel Aviv Tribune that the targeting of humanitarian convoys had been happening since May.
“This has led to desperation of people, who do not have what they need and this has led and forced criminal activities,” she stressed.
The pause in aid delivery also follows an Israeli attack on Saturday that killed three contractors from the US charity World Central Kitchen (WCK). The Israeli military claimed that one of the contractors was involved in the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
However, WCK said it had “no knowledge of any individual in the vehicle having any suspected ties” to the Hamas attack.
The UN said last month that 333 aid workers had been killed since the war began in October last year, including 243 UNRWA employees.
Israel, which imposed a total siege on Gaza at the start of the war last year, blames the inability of humanitarian organizations to manage and distribute large amounts of aid.
Hamas’ interior ministry in Gaza responded to the looting, saying more than 20 gang members suspected of carrying out the theft had been killed by its security forces acting in coordination with tribal committees.
Meanwhile, Palestinians in Gaza told Tel Aviv Tribune of their confusion over how, in one of the most heavily patrolled territories on the planet, the presence of so many armed men could have gone unnoticed by Israeli forces.
The Washington Post previously reported that an internal UN memo from October indicated that Gaza gangs “could benefit from passive or even active benevolence” or “protection” from the Israeli army.
A gang leader, according to the memo, had established a “military-style compound” in an area “restricted, controlled and patrolled by the IDF.”
As the situation developed, Gaza’s civil defense agency reported that nearly 100 people had been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza over the past 24 hours.
The victims included those killed in an Israeli strike on a house belonging to the al-Araj family in the Tal az-Zaatar neighborhood, which housed more than 40 people.
The Israeli genocide in Gaza has killed at least 44,382 Palestinians and injured 105,142 since October 7, 2023. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during attacks carried out by Hamas that day, and more than 200 were captured.
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