DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said Sunday it is halting aid deliveries through the main cargo crossing into the war- ravaged Gaza Strip 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 U.N. agency’s 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, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, 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 that is designed for cargo shipments and has been the main artery for aid since the Rafah crossing with Egypt was shut in May. Last month, nearly two-thirds of aid entering Gaza came through Kerem Shalom, and in previous months it accounted for even more, according to Israeli figures.

In an X post, 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.

Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least six people overnight, including two children, ages 6 and 8, in their family’s tent, medical officials said Sunday.

The strike in the Muwasi area, a sprawling coastal camp housing hundreds of thousands of displaced people, also wounded their mother and 8-month-old sister, according to nearby Nasser Hospital. An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies, which were buried in the sand.

A separate strike in the southern city of Rafah killed four men, according to hospital records.

The Israeli military said it was not aware of strikes in either location. Israel says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians, but its daily strikes across Gaza often kill women and children.

A former top Israeli general and defense minister accused the government of ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, where the army has sealed off the towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya and the Jabaliya refugee camp and allowed almost no humanitarian aid to enter.

Moshe Yaalon, who served as defense minister under Netanyahu before quitting in 2016, said the current far-right government is determined to “occupy, to annex, to ethnically cleanse.”

Pressed by a local news outlet on Saturday, Yaalon said, “(They) are actually cleaning the territory of Arabs.”

Netanyahu’s Likud party criticized his earlier remarks, accusing him of making “false statements” that are “a prize for the International Criminal Court and the camp of Israel haters.”

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants against Netanyahu, another former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, and a Hamas commander, accusing them of crimes against humanity. The International Court of Justice is investigating allegations of genocide against Israel.

Israel rejects the allegations and says both courts are biased against it.

Israel reached a ceasefire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants last week that has largely held, but that agreement did not address the war in Gaza.

Gaza ceasefire efforts have stalled as Israel rejected Hamas’ demand for a complete withdrawal from the territory. The Biden administration has said it will make another push for a deal.

“There are negotiations taking place behind the scenes, and it can be done,” Israel’s mostly ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, said Sunday after meeting with the mother of an Israeli-American hostage.