NEW YORK, (PIC)
Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), announced the suspension of aid delivery through the Kerem Shalom crossing, the main route for humanitarian assistance into the Gaza Strip. This decision follows an incident on Saturday where an armed gang seized food trucks attempting to enter through this crossing.
In a tweet on Sunday, Lazzarini described the humanitarian operation in the besieged Palestinian territory as increasingly impossible due to the blockade, Israeli obstacles, and lack of security. He stressed that the responsibility for protecting relief workers and supplies lies with the Israeli occupation as the occupying power.
Lazarini confirmed that the decision—characterized as difficult—to halt aid delivery comes at a time when hunger is rapidly worsening. Reports of thieves and bandits seizing aid trucks in Gaza have proliferated, as Israeli forces are accused of protecting these gangs and targeting Palestinian police to prevent them from securing aid.
Just hours earlier, UNRWA warned that Palestinians in Gaza are now entirely dependent on humanitarian assistance due to the ongoing undermining of the UN’s ability to fulfill its mandate. The agency shared a complaint from an elderly displaced Palestinian woman who reported being unable to obtain medications due to shortages caused by Israeli restrictions on UNRWA’s operations in the region.
Eighty-year-old Jamila stated that she traveled long distances and passed through large crowds just to reach a clinic in Khan Yunis for her medications. “I suffer from chronic illnesses, yet I cannot find any available medicine,” she said. Jamila added, “I relied entirely on UNRWA for healthcare and education for myself, my children, and my grandchildren. Today, I face a terrifying reality—who will stand by us if UNRWA is not there?”
UNRWA commented in the same post, “In war-torn Gaza, civilians like Jamila are left to rely exclusively on humanitarian aid. The UN’s ability to fulfill its mandate is continuously undermined.” They emphasized that a ceasefire must be implemented now.
On October 28, the Israeli Knesset finalized a ban on UNRWA’s activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. On November 4, Israel informed the United Nations of its cancellation of the 1967 agreement governing UNRWA’s operations, which means a ban on its activities will come into effect if the decision is implemented in late January.
This Israeli decision follows false claims made by the Israeli government against the agency, accusing dozens of UNRWA employees in Gaza of involvement in the “Al-Aqsa Flood” carried out by Palestinian resistance in October 2023. A series of investigations failed to find any evidence supporting the Israeli allegations against UNRWA, which has suffered heavy losses, with at least 223 of its employees in Gaza killed and two-thirds of its facilities in the region damaged or destroyed since the outbreak of the war.
With U.S. support, Israel has been conducting a war of extermination on Gaza since October 7, 2023, resulting in over 149,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of whom are children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amidst massive destruction and famine that has killed dozens of children and the elderly, marking one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.
