UNRWA pauses aid delivery via key Gaza-Israel crossing

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

"We are pausing the delivery of aid through Kerem Shalom, the main crossing point for humanitarian aid into Gaza. 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 said in a post 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.

Lazzarini listed how the humanitarian operation had become "unnecessarily impossible" due to "the ongoing siege, hurdles from Israeli authorities, political decisions to restrict the amounts of aid, lack of safety on aid routes and targeting of local police".

He called on Israel to ensure aid flowed to Gaza and said the country "must refrain from attacks on humanitarian workers".

This follows an Israeli strike on Saturday that killed three contractors of the US charity World Central Kitchen, including one who Israel's military said was involved in Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack.

The United Nations said last month that 333 aid workers had been killed since the start of the war in October of last year, 243 of them employees of UNRWA.

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

Israel, which imposed a total siege on the Hamas-ruled territory in the early stages of the war last year, blames the inability of relief organisations to handle and distribute large quantities of aid.

The war in Gaza was triggered by Palestinian militants' October 2023 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,207 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed 44,382 people in Gaza, according to figures from the territory's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.