13 - International Hard or Feature News

UN Stops Aid Shipments from Going through Gaza, Blames on Israel

On Sunday, December 1st, the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees declared that they were stopping aid shipments from going through the Gaza Strip because of looting. There have been threats of armed gangs raiding convoys, and the UN is placing the blame for the lawlessness on Israeli policies. AP News claims that almost 100 aid trucks were ransacked in mid-November. 

This halting of aid is expected to have an extremely negative impact on Palestinians in Gaza, with famine levels already on the rise. Thousands of Palestinians who are stuck in tent camps are dependent on international aid and will suffer with winter coming up. In northern Gaza, no aid has been received since October due to an Israeli siege blocking any attempts from humanitarian groups. 

Palestinians wait in line for food, from AP News. 

The only route left between Israel and Gaza that can maintain cargo shipments is the Kerem Shalom, which is now said to be too dangerous by the head of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees, Philippe Lazzarini. In the past few months, over two-thirds of aid that was received in Gaza came on the Kerem Shalom. Lazzarini delves further into the issue in an X post.

A photo of a Palestinian boy walking among rubble (AP News).

In the past few days, Israel strikes have allegedly killed at least six people in Gaza overnight, including two children, in the tent camps. The Israeli government has been accused of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza by multiple notable names, including a former Israeli defense minister named Moshe Yaalon. Israel has claimed that they are in talks with Gaza and other areas about a ceasefire.