UNRWA stops aid delivery via key Gaza-Israel crossing

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees has halted the delivery of aid through the key Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza because of safety fears, its chief said Sunday.

"The road out of this crossing has not been safe for months. On 16 November, a large convoy of aid trucks was stolen by armed gangs," UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini posted on X.

"Yesterday, we tried to bring in a few food trucks on the same route. They were all taken," he added, warning hunger was "rapidly deepening" in Gaza.

"The humanitarian operation has become unnecessarily impossible," he said.

The United Nations said Friday that Gaza has descended into anarchy, with hunger soaring, looting rampant and rising numbers of rapes in shelters as public order falls apart.

Israel, which imposed a total siege of the Hamas-ruled territory after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, blames says thayt relief organisations cannot distribute large quantities of aid.

"Only 7 percent of the aid that came into the Gaza Strip in November was coordinated by UNRWA," the Israeli defence ministry agency responsible for civilian affairs in the Palestinian territories, COGAT, said on X.

"There are dozens of humanitarian organisations operating in the Gaza Strip that continue to take a growing role in delivering humanitarian aid," it added.

During a press visit Thursday, the Israeli army showed aid shipments at the crossing and said they wait at the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom for "months".

- Ceasefire calls -

Lazzarini also said Israel "must refrain from attacks on humanitarian workers".

His demand follows an Israeli strike Saturday that killed three contractors of the US charity World Central Kitchen, including one who Israel's military said was involved in October 7.

Save the Children later said a strike killed one of its staff members, the second employee to be killed since the war began last October.

Alexandra Saieh, head of humanitarian policy and advocacy for Save the Children, echoed Lazzarini's demands. "We must see aid flow into Gaza safely and end to attacks on humanitarian workers," she said.

The UN last month said 333 aid workers had been killed since the war began, including 243 UNRWA employees.

Lazzarini reiterated his call for a ceasefire "that would also secure the delivery of safe and uninterrupted aid to people in need".

A summit of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) leaders urged an "immediate and permanent cessation of Israeli fire and military operations" as well as "the delivery of all humanitarian and relief aid and basic needs to the residents of Gaza".

German deputy foreign minister Tobias Linder also said Israel had no excuse for hampering aid delivery to Gaza before a conference in Cairo on the subject Monday.

- 'Catastrophic' -

"If aid supplies cannot come in through Kerem Shalom,... it will continue to be catastrophic for people," Save the Children's Saieh said.

She pointed to "the south and central areas where there are already rising levels of hunger, the risk of famine is getting worse by the day, and the onset of winter will bring with it the risk of more illness and disease".

Claire Nicolet, head of mission for Doctors Without Borders, told AFP the situation was "catastrophic" and that UNRWA's announcement was the "straw that broke the camel's back" because the agency was "the backbone of aid for the supply of food and equipment".

The Hamas attack in 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,207 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

At least 44,429 Palestinians, a majority of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's military campaign in the Gaza Strip since the war began, according to data provided by the health ministry in the territory.

The UN has acknowledged these figures to be reliable.

Israel has 'no excuse' for blocking Gaza aid

Israel has no excuse for hampering the delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, a top German diplomat said on Sunday ahead of a conference in Cairo on the subject next week.

The country must "at last keep its promises to fluidify humanitarian aid into Gaza and to allow sufficient humanitarian access at any moment", said Tobias Lindner, the deputy foreign affairs minister, in a statement published ahead of his trip to Egypt.

"There is no excuse for that. Israel's right to legitimate self-defence finds its limits in international humanitarian rights."

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said something similar in November, accusing Israel of "constantly" reneging on its commitments.

The UN agency that deals with Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, on Sunday announced it was suspending the delivery of indispensable aid into Gaza through a key crossing point because the situation had become "impossible".

Berlin, which recently increased arms deliveries to Israel, is searching to maintain an increasingly difficult juggling act between its historic support for Israel and its calls for international law to be respected as conflict rages in the Middle East.

On Tuesday, Baerbock lauded the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah as a "ray of hope for the whole region".

However, no such truce appears imminent between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

The armed group's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the death of 1,207 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.

In response, Israel launched a withering military campaign on Gaza, killing at least 44,429 there, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

Britain ups Gaza aid

Britain will provide an additional 19 million pounds ($24 million) in humanitarian aid to Gaza, the international development minister said Monday, calling for Israel to give greater access ahead of a key conference on the conflict.

"Gazans are in desperate need of food, and shelter with the onset of winter," the minister, Anneliese Dodds, said in a statement as she headed for a three-day visit to the region, including an international conference in Cairo Monday on the Gaza Strip's aid needs.

"The Cairo conference will be an opportunity to get leading voices in one room and put forward real-world solutions to the humanitarian crisis," she added.

"Israel must immediately act to ensure unimpeded aid access to Gaza."

Aid organisations accuse Israel of preventing trucks from entering Gaza in large enough numbers to alleviate a humanitarian crisis in the war-torn territory.

The new UK funding will be split into 12 million pounds for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the World Food Programme (WFP), and seven million pounds for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the statement said.

UNRWA announced Sunday it had halted the delivery of aid through the key Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza because of safety fears, saying the situation had become "impossible".

Britain has committed to spending a total of 99 million pounds this year in humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territories, the government said.

After Dodds's Cairo stop, the minister is to travel to the Palestinian territories and Israel.

Islamist militant group Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the death of 1,207 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.

Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 44,429 in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the UN considers reliable.