Live: UN halts aid through Gaza’s main crossing after convoy looted by armed gangs

• UNRWA pauses aid delivery via key Gaza-Israel crossing
• Gaza health ministry says Israel-Hamas war death toll at 44,429
• Russian, Syrian jets intensify bombing of Syria’s rebel-held northwest

Gaza health ministry says Israel-Hamas war death toll at 44,429

The health ministry in Gaza said Sunday that at least 44,429 people have been killed in more than 13 months of war between Israel and Palestinian militants.

The toll includes 47 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 105,250 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.

Russian, Syrian jets intensify bombing of Syria’s rebel-held northwest

Russian and Syrian jets struck the rebel-held city of Idlib on Sunday in the second day of intensive bombing in northern Syria aimed at pushing back insurgents who had swept through to the city of Aleppo, Syrian army sources said.

Residents said one of the raids hit a crowded residential area in the centre of Idlib, which is the largest city in a rebel enclave near the Turkish border where around four million people live in makeshift tents and dwellings.

At least four people were killed and dozens injured, according to rescuers at the scene.

The Syrian army and its ally Russia say they target the hideouts of insurgent groups and deny attacking civilians.

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”.

Israeli strikes kill 15 in Gaza, looting hampers aid

Israeli military strikes killed at least 15 Palestinians in Gaza on Sunday, medics said, as Israeli forces kept up bombardments across the enclave and blew up houses on its northern edge.

As fighting raged almost 14 months into the war, the head of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said it had had to halt aid deliveries through one crossing a day after armed gangs inside Gaza seized food from a convoy of trucks.

“This difficult decision comes at a time hunger is rapidly deepening,” UNRWA’s Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X.

In the central Gaza camp of Nuseirat, an Israeli airstrike killed six people in a house, and another attack killed three in a home in Gaza City, medics said.