Hamas releases hostage video as UNRWA halts aid deliveries to Gaza citing looting

Palestinian militant group Hamas has released a video of an Israeli-American hostage on Saturday, in which he pleads for US President-elect Donald Trump to secure his release.

Yael Alexander, the mother of hostage Edan Alexander, said she was shaken by the 3-1/2-minute video, which showed the 20-year-old captive looking pale, seated in a dark space against a wall. 

He identified himself and addressed his family, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr Trump.

The video "gives us hope, but it also shows how difficult it is for Edan and for the other hostages, and how much they are crying out and praying for us to rescue them," his mother said at a Tel Aviv rally calling for the hostages' release.

"My dear, beloved Edan, we miss you painfully," she said before she called on Israel's leaders to end the war in Gaza and make a deal with Hamas to release the hostages.

Mr Netanyahu said in a statement that the video was cruel psychological warfare and that he had told Mr Alexander's family in a phone call that Israel was working tirelessly to bring the hostages home. 

Mr Trump's transition team could not be immediately reached for comment.

Mr Alexander, a soldier at the time of his abduction, was taken to Gaza during the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on southern Israel.

About half of the 101 foreign and Israeli hostages still held incommunicado in Gaza are believed to be alive.

UN halts aid convoys into Gaza

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said it was halting aid deliveries to Gaza on Sunday 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.

The 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 designed for cargo shipments and has been the main artery for aid since the Rafah crossing with Egypt was shut in May. 

Mr 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. 

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 per cent 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.

Hostage negotiations continue

Meanwhile, Hamas leaders held talks in Cairo with Egyptian security officials to explore ways to reach a deal with Israel that could secure the release of hostages in return for Palestinian prisoners.

The visit was the first since the United States announced on Wednesday it would revive efforts in collaboration with Qatar, Egypt and Turkey to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza.

Hamas is seeking an agreement that would end the war while Mr Netanyahu has said the war will only end when Hamas is eradicated.

Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 44,300 people and displaced nearly all of the enclave's population, Gaza officials say. 

Vast swathes of Gaza lie in ruins.

The conflict when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people and abducting more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

Palestinian prisoners die in custody

Two Palestinian detainees from Gaza have died in Israeli custody, prisoner advocacy groups said on Sunday, bringing the number of detainees reportedly killed since the start of the war to 47.

They named the two men as Mohammad Idris and Muath Rayyan, both in their 30s.

The Israel Prison Service said the cases were not under its jurisdiction and there was no immediate comment from the military which runs detention camps.

Israel has denied accusations from Palestinian and international human rights organisations that detainees have been mistreated and tortured in its jails and detention camps.

Israeli strikes kill 15

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.

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

Two children were killed when a missile hit a tent encampment in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, while four other people were killed in an air-strike in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, medics told Reuters.

Residents said the military blew up clusters of houses in the northern Gaza areas of Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, where Israeli forces have operated since October this year.

Palestinians said Israel's operations on the northern edge of the enclave are part of a plan to clear people out through forced evacuations and bombardments to create a buffer zone — an allegation the army denies.

The military said it has killed hundreds of Hamas militants there as it fights to stop the faction regrouping almost 14 months since the war in Gaza started. 

Hamas's armed wing said it has killed many Israeli forces in anti-tank rocket and mortar fire attacks, and in ambushes with explosive devices since the new operation started.

Reuters/AP