THE biggest UN agency providing aid to Palestinians has said it is suspending deliveries through the main crossing between Israel and Gaza in what it said would be “another blow to a desperate population”.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) announced on Sunday it was pausing deliveries to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing because of the “breakdown of civil order”.
The crossing, known in Arabic as Kerem Abu Salem, has been targeted by looters and organised criminals who have been emboldened by the chaos in the region.
In a speech in Cairo on Sunday, commissioner general for UNRWA Philippe Lazzarini said: “The international humanitarian response in Gaza is today being severely tested. The breakdown of civil order has forced us to pause aid deliveries through Kerem Abu Salem – another blow to a desperate population.
“Humanitarian work can only succeed when shielded by a robust international legal and political framework. Without this, humanitarians – however selfless and courageous – cannot stay and deliver.”
Last month, a convoy of 109 lorries carrying food was attacked by a gang of masked men who managed to steal 97 trucks at gunpoint, the BBC reported.
A Gazan crime family also blocked the main road to the crossing for two days, while aid workers and locals told the BBC that armed gangs operate in sight of Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers in a restricted zone at the border.
Lazzarini (above) said that five lorries had been stolen the day before.
It comes after World Central Kitchen paused its work in Gaza over the weekend after an Israeli strike killed three of its employees and two other people.
UNRWA faces the threat of being banned in Israel under a new law passed by its parliament, the Knesset, in October.
The UN agency said that enacting the law would have “disastrous consequences”.
Lazzarini said: “In Gaza, dismantling UNRWA will collapse the United Nations’ humanitarian response.”
Food deliveries have reached their lowest level since the current conflict began on October 7 and another UN agency has predicted a “worst-case scenario” of a famine engulfing the Gaza Strip without immediate action.
