United Nations aid workers killed in Gaza exceeds all other conflicts in the organization’s 78-year history. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) reported that 102 aid workers have been killed and 27 others injured in Gaza since Israel’s war with Hamas began over a month ago. This is the highest number of aid workers killed in a conflict in UN history. The war escalated with attacks by Hamas on October 7th, which led to Israel’s ongoing barrage of Gaza. The UN is mourning the loss of their colleagues, part of the 13,000 working in Gaza who have perished during Israel’s bombardment.
UNRWA was established a year after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and has been providing vital services to over 780,000 people in more than 150 crowded facilities. However, they are struggling to keep up with the needs of the displaced and vulnerable, as they are currently strangled by a lack of resources for the operation. Due to the Israeli blockade on all fuel and most food, water, and medicine from entering Gaza, staff are unable to fuel their trucks and will be unable to receive aid deliveries through the Rafah crossing on Tuesday. In addition, 60 UNRWA facilities, mostly schools, have suffered harm from Israeli strikes.
This recent strike to a UN building is yet another indication that nowhere in Gaza is safe. Preventing the loss and damage to civilians and infrastructure, including shelters and schools used for civilians, is crucial to mitigating the continued dire situation in Gaza, in which living conditions are becoming more and more desperate. The disregard for the protection of civilian facilities demonstrates the level of misery that civilians in Gaza are facing each day.
