Palestinian walk past destroyed building at a neighbourhood in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees said Sunday it is halting aid deliveries through the main cargo crossing into the war-ravaged Gaza Strip because of the threat of armed gangs who have looted convoys. It blamed the breakdown of law and order in large part on Israeli policies.

In Israel, a former defense minister and fierce critic of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — and a hard-liner on the Palestinians — accused the government of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, where a military offensive continues.

The U.N. agency's decision could worsen Gaza's humanitarian crisis as a second cold, rainy winter sets in, with hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in squalid tent camps and reliant on international aid. Experts already warned of famine in the 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 is too dangerous on the Gaza side. Armed men looted nearly 100 trucks on the route in mid-November.

Kerem Shalom is the only crossing between Israel and Gaza that is designed for cargo shipments and has been the main artery for aid since the Rafah crossing with Egypt was shut in May. Last month, nearly two-thirds of aid entering Gaza came through Kerem Shalom, and in previous months it accounted for even more, according to Israeli figures.

In an X post, Lazzarini largely blamed Israel for the breakdown of humanitarian operations in Gaza, citing “political decisions to restrict the amounts of aid,” lack of safety on routes and Israel's targeting of the Hamas-run police force, which previously provided public security.

“Yesterday we had assurances aid would be fine. We tried to move five trucks and they were all taken,” Scott Anderson, director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza, told The Associated Press. “So we’ve kind of reached a point where it makes no sense to continue to try to move aid if it’s just gonna be looted.” When asked whether UNRWA has seen evidence supporting Israeli claims that Hamas has been behind aid looting, he emphasized that there's no systemic diversion of aid in Gaza.

A spokesman for UNICEF, Ammar Ammar, confirmed the security situation was “unacceptable” and said it was evaluating its operations at the crossing.

The Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza said on X that it will continue to work with the international community to increase aid into Gaza through Kerem Shalom and other crossings, and said UNRWA coordinated less than 10% of the aid that entered Gaza in November.

The Israeli military accuses UNRWA of having allowed Hamas to infiltrate its ranks — allegations the agency denies — and passed legislation to sever ties with it last month.

Israeli strikes kill at least six people, including children

Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least six people overnight, including two children, ages 6 and 8, in their family's tent, medical officials said Sunday.

The strike in the Muwasi area, a sprawling coastal camp housing hundreds of thousands of displaced people, also wounded their mother and 8-month-old sister, according to nearby Nasser Hospital. An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies, which were buried in the sand.

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.

Former defense minister accuses Israel of war crimes

A former top Israeli general and defense minister accused the government of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, where the army has sealed off the towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and the Jabaliya refugee camp and allowed almost no humanitarian aid to enter.

Moshe Yaalon, who served as defense minister under Netanyahu before quitting in 2016, said the current far-right government is determined to “occupy, to annex, to ethnically cleanse.”

Pressed by a local news outlet on Saturday, Yaalon said: “(They) are actually cleaning the territory of Arabs.”

He added Sunday in an interview with Israeli radio: “My issue is not with the soldiers of the Israeli army. On the contrary: I’m speaking on behalf of commanders who are active in northern Gaza and turned to me because they are troubled by what is happening there. They are being placed in life-threatening situations; they are being thrust into moral dilemmas.”

Netanyahu’s Likud party criticized his earlier remarks, accusing him of making “false statements” that are “a prize for the International Criminal Court and the camp of Israel haters.”

The ICC has issued arrest warrants against 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 against Israel.

Israel rejects the allegations and says both courts are biased against it.

Israel says Gaza ceasefire talks resume 'behind the scenes'

The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 hostage. Some 100 captives are still held inside Gaza, around two-thirds believed to be alive.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,429 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were combatants. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The war has destroyed vast areas of the coastal enclave and displaced 90% of the population of 2.3 million, often multiple times.

Israel reached a ceasefire with Lebanon's Hezbollah militants last week that has largely held, but that agreement did not address the war in Gaza.

Gaza ceasefire efforts have stalled as Israel rejected Hamas' demand for a complete withdrawal from the territory. The Biden administration has said it will make another push for a deal.

“There are negotiations taking place behind the scenes, and it can be done,” Israel's mostly ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, said Sunday after meeting with the mother of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, who appeared in a video released Saturday by Hamas.

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Magdy reported from Cairo and Goldenberg from Tel Aviv, Israel.

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